Candy and a Movie: Movie #46 Memento

Memento (2000)

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0209144/

Senegal and Latvia are the newest countries with readers. Magnificent. Can't get into the review without letting you know that I've watched this movie twice recently. I saw it a long time ago but all I remembered was that I really liked it and it's about a guy who has short term memory loss. That's it. Maybe I have long term memory loss. Anyway, I found the 10^th anniversary version online and I thought it would be good to watch. I figured they probably “remastered” it (whatever that means) and maybe added in a few deleted scenes or something. I was wrong. If you have seen the movie then you probably know one of the coolest things about it is that it flows backwards in time. Like you start at the end and then find out how it got there throughout the whole movie. In the version I saw, someone had completely reorganized things in chronological order. The movie still was pretty good but it just ended and remembered that there was some twist. I looked the movie up on netflix thinking that the version I watched had just gotten cut off only to realize that I watched it backwards (forwards) and the twist was told like 10 minutes in. Maybe that was the twist. So to write a proper review, I just watched the regular version so everything you read will be in the right order. Confusing? I hope not.

The first scene of the movie is a hand holding a Polaroid picture of a dead guy with dramatic music playing. The hand shakes the picture and a little of it disappears. Should be more showing up, what's going on. Shakes it again and it starts to get yellow like how Polaroids are when you first take them. Then the picture turns black and we see the guy who got shot. The blood pool is retracting so things are still going backwards. Scene cuts to the main character, Leonard (Guy Pearce), getting into a car with some dude named Teddy (Joe Pantoliano). The window of the car is broken. Because things are going backward, I'm sure we'll find out why that happened later. They go to some rundown looking building. Teddy enters first followed buy Lenny who has a picture of Teddy with a note that says “Don't believe his lies, he's the one, kill him”. Lenny shoots Teddy and now we know who the body is. That's how this movie works, the scene you're watching will end with the beginning of the scene before. Then the next scene will end with the beginning of the scene you're watching now. You learn more piece by piece.

In between most of the scenes are these cool little cuts of Lenny in his hotel room. It's all in black and white and for the most part he's talking to someone on the phone, tell him his story. It's a clever way to tell us all of Lenny's back story as we hear him tell it to the person on the phone. Don't know if I have clearly talked about Lenny's memory problems. Basically someone raped and murdered his wife. Somewhere during it, Lenny had a head injury that damaged his brain. He remembers everything that happened before the accident but is unable to make new memories. He takes pictures of people and writes notes on them (like the one of Teddy). He tattoos the really important stuff on him so that it'll be there forever. For instance, across his chest(which is pretty well sculpted) are the words “John G. Raped and Murdered My Wife”. That's not something that one should be forgetting. On his hand is “Remember Sammy Jankis”. On his leg is a tattoo of a license plate number. He opens up a paper and it's a report of a John Gammell who owns that plate. Leonard see the picture of John and it's Teddy and he writes down he's the one kill him. This is all going on in black and white in his hotel room. He gets a call on the phone and is about to talk about Sammy when the scene ends.

Leonard walks into a diner and is supposed to meet someone named Natalie. On her picture is the note “She also has lost someone and will help you out of pity”. Natalie is the chick from the Matrix. I don't like the way she is talking, she isn't super nice. Natalie hands Lenny the info on Teddy so we see how he got that. Lenny then has a quick flashback of his wife and he was married to the brunette girl from CSI.

Back to the hotel and Lenny tells whoever on the phone that he used to be a claims investigator for an insurance company. That means he was the guy who decides if the people wanting money were bs'ing or not. His first real challenging case was Sammy Jankis. The guy got in a car accident and couldn't remember anything for more than a few minutes. He can think and remember to do things like give his wife an insulin shot perfectly fine, he just can't remember that he did it right after it happens. Leonard said that even though Sammy said that he didn't know him, every time that they met he could see a look of recognition in his eye.

Next scene is Leonard waking up next to Natalie, it must have been a good night. They kind of half kiss and it isn't hot.

Back to Sammy. To test if he had short term memory loss, they test him by having him pick up blocks. If he touches one of them, he will be shocked and should be able to learn through repetition not to pick that one up anymore. He does the same test over and over, never learning which brings Leonard to declare that his condition is psychological not physical meaning that they don't get their insurance money. Dangle from Reno 911 is the doctor which is super random.

Leonard runs into Natalie's house all angry and confused. We should see how they ended up spending the night together. He has a picture of a bloodied up guy but Natalie said that the guy beat her and Leonard was getting revenge for her so it's ok. He calms down, they end up in bed together and he talks about his own problem to the dramatic music again. This is when he writes down the note about her helping him out of pity.

Now Leonard wakes up in a hotel room. There is a beat up guy in the closet and Teddy is knocking on the door. Teddy is let in and when asked why his is there, he says because Lenny called him. He then says the best part about knowing someone with short term memory loss is that the same joke keeps working on them. He finds the guy in the closet and they don't know what they should do with him. Eventually they get him in a car and threaten to kill him if he doesn't leave the city so he peaces out and they don't have to worry about him anymore.

Once Sammy's case is over, his wife comes in to see Leonard to ask him what he really thinks. If he thinks that he's gone forever than she can forget the old Sammy and learn to love the new one who can't remember squat. If he thinks that he might snap out of it then she will try to get the old Sammy back. Leonard says that he doesn't think that he is faking but everything is in his head. He should snap out of it.

Leonard is in the shower and a guy walks in to use the bathroom. They fight and Lenny wins. We don't see his junk, only some buns so I might consider us all winners. He ties the guy up, puts him in the closet, calls Teddy and then falls asleep. Now we know why there is a bloody guy in the closet. Kind of.

Lenny is giving himself a tattoo back in the hotel room. He does it by taping a needle to a pen and dipping that in ink from the pen. Metal. His lines are pretty straight for doing it that way.

Next scene starts with Leonard just running. He sees a guy and thinks that he's chasing after him. Once the guy shoots at him, he changes his mind and decides that he's being chased. The guy is the same dude who will end up bloodied in the closet and his name is Dodd. Leonard finds that he has Dodd's hotel room written down so he heads over there to wait for Dodd to show up. He hides for a few seconds and then you can see that he changes and has completely forgotten what he is doing there.

Lenny is driving his car and some dbag behind him is giving him the horn. He pulls over and Dodd shoots at him, breaking the window. Lenny gets out on foot. We now have seen why the window was broken in the very beginning and how the chase from last scene got started.

Now Leonard gets into his car and see's that Teddy is already in there. Teddy tells him not to trust Natalie because she will use him. Then he drives off.

Back to the hotel room again and while still talking on the phone, Lenny takes a bandage off of his leg. It was covering a new tattoo that says never answer the phone. He hangs up right away.

Leonard is now in a panic at Natalie's home. He keeps saying “Don't forget” over and over to himself while looking for a pen to write down a new note to himself. Natalie walks in and he forgets everything. She looks pretty rough and says this guy named Dodd beat her. Lenny says to write down where Dodd lives and he will go take care of him. Now everything will Dodd makes sense. Lenny squeezes his fist like he just hit something and it hurts now. Hmm

Hotel room again and Leonard is in full paranoia mode. The phone rings and he hangs it up right away.

Back to Natalie's house where Leonard is sitting on her couch and she gets up to hide all of her pens. Then she goes off on this crazy rant about his wife, calling her all sorts of names (rhymes with bunt) and calls him a retard. She says that he is a freak and she is going to use him. I knew she was bad. He kind of puts his hand over her mouth and mushes her. I've never imagined hitting a female but if someone ever warranted it, it's Natalie right now. She keeps going on and Leonard finally does hit her. She leaves with all of the pens so Leonard can't take a note. Then she walks right back in, face all punched and says that Dodd did it. Now we know why Lenny's hand hurt.

Back at the hotel, Lenny is still very paranoid.

Natalie and Leonard arrive together at her house. She is still being nice at this point. We finally see what happened the night of the rape/murder. Leonard wakes up and his wife isn't in bed. He hears a commotion in the bathroom and grabs his gun. Lenny busts down the door and sees that his wife is getting raped and has the shower curtain over her face so she can't breathe. Lenny shoots the guy and then someone else throws his head into the mirror causing the brain damage and now memory loss. Basically he is the one looking for the killer because the police don't believe that there was a second guy who smashed his head. They don't believe that they should be looking for a John G.

More scene's of the hotel and he still isn't answering his phone. An envelope is slid under his door that says answer the phone. Inside of the envelope is a picture of him smiling.

Lenny finds a coaster in his pocket that says meet Natalie at a bar. She thinks that he is her boyfriend when he drives up, a Jimmy Grant, because he is driving the same car as he does. She is bartender and inside talks to Lenny with some attitude. To test if he has no memory, everyone at the bar spits into a beer and she gives it to Lenny who drinks some of it, forgetting about the spit. Gross.

End of the Sammy story. Says wife went home and kind of game him a final test. She said that it was time for her insulin and he comes over and gives her the shot. 15 seconds after he sits back down she tells him the same thing and gives her the shot again. She does it a third time and he gives her the shot for the third time. I guess too much insulin can kill you because she fell into a coma (acoma) and never woke up again. Sammy now lives in a retirement home and has no idea that his wife is even dead. Aww. Lenny goes on to say that the look in his eye's when they met of recognition was just a bluff. We all do it when we see someone who remembers us but we don't remember them. He was just trying to give off the impression that he did know who he was.

Teddy tells Leonard that he needs to get out of town because there is a cop that's messing with him. He says the guy is trying to get Lenny close to Jimmy Grant and get more information on him because he is a drug dealer.

SPOILERS ALTHOUGH THE MOVIE IS ONE BIG SPOILER

Last time in the hotel room. The cop on the phone must've asked Leonard if he was ready to get John G. because he says that he's ready. He walks out and things are in black in white so this all takes place after his conversation on the phone. He said that he would meet the cop in the lobby and what do you know, it's Teddy. He was the guy on the phone the whole time but I figured it was him. There was no one else it really could've been. For the first time Leonard is wearing different clothes so he changes sometime in the near future. Teddy tells Lenny where to go and it ends up being that same beat-up place from the beginning. He is driving a pick up truck that was left there when he went back the second time and killed Teddy so I'm guessing that he leaves in someone else's car. He walks into the building with a tire iron in his hand and the car that he's been driving all movie shows up. Can't be good for that guy. The guy is also wearing the suit that Leonard has been wearing. They chat a little and Leonard hits him in the head with the tire iron. Right after that he tells him to strip because he doesn't want to get blood on the clothes. I'm thinking “alright Lenny. This is the John G. Get him.” Jimmy Grant puts up a fight while taking his clothes off but Leonard end up choking him to death. Leonard puts on his suit and the movie jumps back to being in color.

Teddy pulls up and Leonard is upset about killing Jimmy. Doesn't think that he is “the” John G. Teddy says who cares, he's “a” John G. Leonard now has a gun and it's aimed at Teddy. Teddy tells him that the whole Sammy Jankis story is really his own story. He is Sammy Jankis. That would be a serious twist but Leonard says that it isn't true and he knows it isn't. Phew. Here comes the big twist.

Teddy says that he was the cop that investigated his wives case and was the only one who believed him about John G. A year ago they tracked the guy down and Leonard killed him. Teddy took a picture of him right after it and was the one who slid it under the door. Teddy thought that killing John G. would snap Leonard out of his short term memory problem but he still couldn't remember anything like even the fact that he killed John G. Now Teddy has been tricking him into going after other John G's. He says that there are so many of them and there are a few bad ones. Teddy's real name is even John Gammell, John G.

Leonard goes back to his car and thinks to himself something like “ Fine if you want me to go after John G, I'll go after a John G. It's going to be you” and drives off. So the whole movie, he was really after Teddy. Boom.

WELL THAT TOOK LONG ENOUGH. HERE IS THE END(END) OF THIS POST

Favorite Scene : I kind of like all of the hotel scene's the best. It's all black and white and he's just talking to himself but they look awesome. Also any scene where you can physically see him forget what he was doing is also sweet.

Memorable Lines : “What's the last thing that you remember? My wife... That's sweet....Dying.”

“Now, where was I” (best line to end on)

“Well, at least you're being honest about ripping me off”

Rating : 9 Lemon Heads. Might be my highest rating yet. Can't think of anything I didn't like about this movie. It makes me think to about other movies like the Woman in Black where the director has trouble telling a story in a regular sequence. Think about how hard it is to envisioning not only the sequence that this went through but also making it look the way it does. The music goes perfectly with it and Pearce does a good job acting. The black and white scene's look great especially when contrasting the ones in color. I guess if there are things you don't get you can always watch it in a chronological progression now like I did the first time too. It's way better in it's original format though.

Alternate Ending : Nothing that I can come up with would be as good as that he was Sammy Jankis the whole time. I'm glad that they didn't go with it because the one they stuck with is great but this one would've been a mind freak too. I also thought while watching it the first time that the twist was going to be that he was the one who killed his wife by accident or something and it was so traumatic that he blocked it and now is living in this current fantasy world.

What I would've done if I was the main character: My memory isn't so great in the first place. I don't remember what I had for dinner last night but it was probably Doritos Locos tacos. I can only come up with that because it's what I eat most nights though. I would probably drop out of college and start training for the UFC. Those guys have lots of tattoos and have been beaten in the head so much that I assume they can't remember anything so I would fit in.

What happens in the sequel : I don't even know where to begin with this. Would it start before the beginning or after the ending. The beginning is the ending of the story so it would take place before the movie starts I think. Or maybe not. Sorry, I'm not even going to try. Let's keep it a solo work.