SPOILER
ALERT! The plot will be discussed.
Memento (2001), directed by Christopher
Nolan, is based on a story by his brother, Jonathan Nolan. The title refers to
some objective thing that serves to remind one of something else. The stress
here is relying on what is outside the individual, as opposed to depending on
one’s mental capabilities. The film is about memory, how it can be unreliable,
and how we change it to fit our needs. The movie is a puzzle which reflects how
difficult life would be if we didn’t have memories to rely on, whether they are
genuine or tainted. And, the film is cynical about how the devious nature of
people surfaces to take advantage of others through lies, which in a way create
false impressions that are stored as memories. It would be difficult to
summarize this movie, since most of it is told backwards, and the story is told
by an especially unreliable narrator. The black and white scenes are in
chronological order and mostly deal with the main character talking on the
telephone. The color episodes are in reverse order. I decided to address the
plot as it is shown to mirror the experience of the viewer. (You may need
Tylenol after reading this post).
The
film opens with Leonard (Guy Pearce) holding a Polaroid photo that is fully
developed and which depicts a bloody crime scene. The picture begins to fade,
reversing the normal process, to mirror Leonard’s short-term memory loss, which
is a real condition known as anterograde amnesia. Leonard shoots Teddy (Joe
Pantolianao), and then the picture rewinds as the spent cartridge jumps back
into the gun to reset the scene to just before Leonard shoots the man. The
effect is to stress how the story will play out in reverse.
Leonard
provides voice-over narration which allows for the audience to identify with
what he is going through. He wakes up, but he really is going from sleeping
dreams to a sort of waking dream, since reality is just as shaky for him. He’s
trying to get oriented, finding he is in a motel room. He calls it an
“anonymous room,” and for Leonard the whole world has that unknown quality.
It’s difficult for him to know how long he has been there. He then is outside
asking the motel manager, Burt (Mark Boone Junior), if he recognizes Teddy from
a photo Leonard carries. Teddy is already there and he enters the lobby, calls
him Lenny, and says he has told him about his memory problem every time he sees
him. So, there has been a lot of repetition between these two men. Teddy acts
like his car is Leonard’s and the fancy Jaguar belongs to Teddy. However,
Leonard took a photo of the sports car and chastises Teddy for messing with
those that are handicapped. Teddy is funny as he says he can tell the same
jokes over and over because Leonard won’t remember them. Leonard’s car has
Nevada plates, which doesn’t fit because he later says he is from San
Francisco. The driver’s window was smashed to bits, but of course Leonard
doesn’t know how. Through most of the film, Leonard has these mysterious
scratches on the left side of his face. He tells Teddy he has a lead to go to
an abandoned warehouse, but doesn’t remember why he is going there. We do learn
from this statement that Leonard is investigating something.
As
they pull into the building’s parking lot, there is a pickup truck there. Teddy
says it’s been there for years, but Leonard points out that there are fresh
tire tracks. The car seat has bullets sitting on it. These are clues to the
true story of what is happening. Leonard goes inside, looks at Teddy’s photo on
which he has written on the back, “Don’t believe his lies. He’s the one. Kill
him.” He whacks Teddy with the gun, points the weapon at him saying he has to
ask Leonard’s wife for forgiveness, and that he’ll “pay” for what he’s done.
Teddy says Leonard doesn't know what he has become. Teddy says they should go
down to the basement to find out who Leonard really is. But, as Teddy moves,
the gun goes off.
The
next scene has Leonard back in the motel room. He says he must write notes, and
prefers tattoos, since written material can get lost and tampered with. He
wrote on his wrist, “Remember Sammy Jankis (Stephen Towbolowski),” who he says
had the same problem as Leonard, which seems strangely coincidental. He says
Sammy didn’t have a system, wrote numerous notes, and mixed them up. He says
that “Sammy had no drive. No reason to make it work.” But what keeps Leonard
going is his quest for vengeance, or else he probably would fall apart because
of his condition. Leonard adds to the note on the photo that Teddy is the one
he should kill, and he loads a gun. We are now watching the time before the
scene where we first saw Leonard with Teddy. Leonard reminds Burt that he
doesn’t want to receive any phone calls because he wants to look at somebody
when he talks to a person to assess accuracy. When asked what was the last
memory that he retained, he tells Burt it was of his wife (Jorga Fox) dying. As
we later learn, that is not accurate. By the time he meets Teddy in the lobby
he has already forgotten what he wrote on the photo.
The
next scene goes back to when Leonard was talking about having a system of
keeping notes. He looks at the part of his leg where he left a note on a
bandage to shave, which he does so he can write in that spot. When it comes to
written notes, he says he can recognize his own handwriting to verify that the
information is what he recorded, and he has to be careful about what others
provide so he is not taken advantage of. He has become suspicious because of
his mental status, but as we see it is impossible to prevent being used. He
gets a phone call, and asks who it is, but we know he tells the clerk in the
scene we already viewed to hold all calls, so this phone call action preceded
that request.
We
jump backward some more. Leonard finds himself in a restroom without a clue as
to why he is there. In a way, he is like a person with dementia, but he is
aware of his condition and has old memories. However, his situation would be
terrifying for most people. He notices the note on his wrist about Sammy. He
then sees other writing on his arm that state the “Facts,” which is an ironic
heading, given his precarious ability to even recognize what is true. He
realizes he is in a diner, and already forgot that he left a large envelope
that says “For Leonard from Natalie (Carrie-Ann Moss)” written on it. He has a
photo of the motel where he is staying but he forgot the location. He needs to
write down directions from the waiter because he won’t be able to recall verbal
information, no matter how simple. In his room he has a map on the wall with
arrows, and he pastes photos of Teddy, his car, the motel and Natalie onto the
map. He opens the envelope which has a copy of Teddy’s California driver’s
license, but the name on it is John Edward Gammell (IMDb notes that the
expiration date on the license is 2/29/01, which is a day that doesn’t exist
because 2001 was not a leap year. This fact adds to the confusion about what is
real and what is not in this story). He already has written on Teddy’s photo
that he should not “believe his lies.” He has Teddy’s phone number on the
photo, calls him, addresses him by his real name to see his response, and Teddy
says he’ll be right over. Lenny takes off his shirt and he has notes on his
body. Some are warnings about his vulnerability. He wrote that the perpetrator
he seeks is a white male whose first name is John or James, and the last name
starts with a “G,” which would fit Teddy’s real name. He also has the license
plate number of Teddy’s car written on his arm. He has a note tattooed
backwards on his chest. He looks at the message in the mirror so it will appear
legible. It says that John G. raped and murdered his wife. Leonard now adds
that he should kill Teddy onto his photo. The use of the backwards writing
stresses how the plot is being told. It also reflects what Leonard has become,
a person who seeks revenge through murder.
Leonard
is talking on the phone and says he doesn’t remember speaking to whoever is on
the other end of the line. The other person mentions how they talked before,
and that Leonard mentioned Sammy to help explain his own situation. Going
backward, we see Leonard going to meet Natalie in the diner. He has notes that
say she has lost someone and will help him out of pity. She has a bruised lip.
He doesn’t remember telling her his situation and having met her before. She
calls him Lenny, but he says he doesn’t like being called by that nickname,
even though his wife used it. He thus has conflicting feelings, not liking the
name but it reminds him of how much he loved his wife. He wants Natalie to take
off her sunglasses, echoing how he said he likes to look people in the eyes to
validate what they are saying. But, that practice doesn’t really work out for
Leonard. This scene is where she gave him the information about Teddy and his
name fitting the John G. person he believes killed his wife. She says given his
condition he won’t remember his vengeful act, so why go through with it (we
hear this objection later by Teddy). He says, “Just because there are things I
don’t remember doesn’t make my actions meaningless.” His recollection, his
personal involvement, he believes is divorced from the validity of his
behavior. He is arguing that if one commits to a purpose, the act alone is what
is important, providing meaning to an individual’s existence in an objective
reality. His metaphor is that just because one closes one’s eyes doesn’t make
the world disappear (this statement is also echoed later). He says he might get
another “freaky tattoo,” as she called his skin illustrations, to remind
himself of what he has done. But given his condition, that satisfaction would
still be fleeting.
Natalie
asks about his wife, which he recalls since he has memories up to his trauma.
He closes his eyes at her request and sees images of his wife which accentuates
how much he misses her. With a hesitation of speech and a look away we get the
sense that Natalie may envy his relationship with his wife. She added the
address of the abandoned building we already saw where he can kill John G. She
says that Teddy (aka John G.) has shown up at the bar where she works. She has
Leonard’s room key, so we know for a fact they have met before. She says they
have something in common, both being survivors. But to survive in a ruthless
world, others may have to be sacrificed, even those one can relate to. She
seems like an ally, but in Leonard’s world, everyone is suspect, even himself,
since he can’t really remember what, as Teddy said, he has become.
Leonard
is back on the phone, and the calls are sometimes interrupted (but we don’t
know who he is talking to yet). We learn that Leonard worked as an insurance
investigator. The irony here is that Leonard thinks he knows how to track down
the facts, but this story shows how truth is hard to come by. He thought Sammy
was a fraud, but his own disability has changed his mind, which is an admission
that even in his life before his trauma, he was not accurate about what was
going on. There are shots of him with people that he says he assessed by
observing their eyes and body movements which suggested nervousness about what they
were passing off as verifiable. He says he was good at his work, but not so
when it came to Sammy. In each of the scenes the audience is placed in Lenny’s
state of unknowing, but we have the advantage of remembering what happened
after the events end.
Teddy
and Leonard have lunch, and Leonard asks if he mentioned Sammy, who he
remembers from before the trauma. It is interesting that he wrote Sammy’s name
on his wrist to urge him to remember him, as if he may not be totally accurate
about his memory even before his head injury. As we discover, he has changed
what he can remember to a different version of the truth to suit his own
purposes. Teddy says Leonard already told him about Sammy. He also mentions
John G., which Leonard seems to not recall. Teddy says he is the guy Leonard is
after. The knowledge of the identity of who he is pursuing followed the
assault, so he even has to be reminded about details concerning his purpose in
life, which points to how slippery his hold on reality is. Teddy warns Leonard
that he was worried that someone may be setting Leonard up to kill the wrong
person. Is Teddy the wrong person? If so, the statement is darkly ironic, in
many ways, as we learn. Leonard says he can’t rely on verbal information like
what Teddy is offering, only on his recorded notes. Teddy stresses that it’s
not safe to rely on notes, as opposed to memory, when a man’s life is at stake.
Leonard then indicts memory, saying “Memory’s not perfect. It’s not even that
good.” He emphasizes that the police base cases on facts and don’t really
depend on testimony, which implies the latter can be subject to prejudices and
preferences. Leonard says memories are “just an interpretation,” and are not a
verifiable record of what happened. But, this movie argues that if one accepts
distorted evidence, then even the power of facts is weakened.
At
lunch with Teddy, which is before he meets Natalie, Leonard does not have the
key to his room (which we know he left at Natalie’s). He goes back to the
motel, which he must continually recall by looking at the photo of it. He
thinks he left his key in the room. Burt, the manager, takes him to one room,
which has some of Leonard’s items. Burt took advantage of Leonard’s memory loss
by renting him a second room, thereby ripping him off. He admits it, and says
that Leonard should get receipts so he doesn’t get ripped off. Leonard says he
will write that down, but he is being sarcastic, because the man who cheated
him is providing advice on how not to be swindled. It, however, indicates that
Leonard can’t protect himself in all situations, and we learn, even writing
down information may not be accurate. Leonard has a note about meeting Natalie
at the diner, which lets us know that scene occurred after this scene in linear
time.
Leonard
is shaving his leg where he will use the space to jot down info. He is on the
phone relating the story of Sammy, who, after a car accident that did not
appear to be that significant, began “acting funny.” Leonard relates that the
man couldn’t “get a handle” on what was happening, which reflects Leonard’s
situation. Doctors found some minor problem with Sammy’s hippocampus. But,
Sammy can’t remember anything new for more than a couple of minutes. He can’t
work and medical bills accumulate, so Leonard went to investigate. Sammy could
not follow TV shows, and liked commercials because they are short. He can give
his wife (Harriet Sansom Harris) her insulin shot because he learned how to do
that prior to the accident. Leonard says he thought there was some small amount
of recognition when he visited, although Sammy denied knowing Leonard. Leonard
tells the person on the phone that he thought Sammy may have been a bad actor
and ordered further testing.
We
next see Leonard back at the time he was at Natalie’s place. He is in bed with
her as he wakes up, but, of course, doesn’t recall who she is until he takes
out her photo which notes she will help him. She says that she has to meet her
contact at the DMV to get John G.’s information. She says that she is helping
him because he helped her, which, just like Leonard, we don’t know what she is
talking about. She sets up the meeting at the restaurant, which we already
witnessed.
Leonard
is back on the phone talking about Sammy, who he says could not learn new
tasks. Leonard says people sustaining short-term memory loss through a physical
injury should be able to do some things by way of “conditioning.” That is,
through repeated behavior. When the doctors tested Sammy by having him pick up
various shaped objects, some of which were electrified, he should have learned
not to choose the charged ones. But, he didn’t and repeatedly picked up ones
that gave him a shock.
The
tale jumps back to when Leonard showed up at Natalie’s house before the morning
after when they were in bed. Leonard is angry because he has a photo of someone
named Dodd (Callum Keith Rennie), which depicts the man bleeding from a facial
injury with his mouth taped, and he wants to know who is the guy. Leonard wants
to know what she has involved him in. Natalie tells Leonard he did her a favor
after he inquired about the lip wound. He feels something isn’t quite right
here (and his instincts are correct). She says Dodd hurt her and Leonard wanted
to help by going after Dodd. But, Leonard says her words are not what he can
rely on. He knows he can predict the sound wood will make when he knocks on it,
or how an object will feel in his hands. He calls these “Certainties. It’s the
kind of memory you take for granted.” This type of mental knowledge, which is
what Leonard is referring to, is unchanging and dependable, unlike the shifting
and, therefore, unreliable nature of people.
Natalie
tries to calm him down after he expresses his present frustration compared to
the time he spent with his wife. She notices his tattoos under his shirt. She
says she lost someone, and she has a photo of herself with a man she calls
Jimmy. She says he left and didn’t come back after meeting a man named Teddy.
So we know Teddy was somehow involved with Jimmy and Natalie. When she finds
out that Leonard plans on killing John G., she then offers her help. They are
in bed later (as we saw) and because of his condition, Leonard implies he has
no emotional sense of how long ago his wife was killed because he has no
memories to fill up the time between her death and the present. Leonard
questions, “How am I supposed to heal if I can’t feel time?” The immediacy of
his pain defies the distancing of time from devastating events. His condition
does not allow the application of the mental process that helps “time heals all
wounds.”
Back
on the phone, Leonard says his company turned down Sammy’s claim because the
conclusion was that he had a psychological problem, not a physical one, and his
condition was not covered. Cynically, Leonard says that Sammy’s wife had to pay
the medical bills and Leonard received a promotion for saving his company
money. He maintains that the difference between Sammy and himself is that
conditioning works for Leonard. That is why he builds in a system of repetitive
actions to help him function, whereas Sammy became helpless. Habit and routine
work for him. But, even though he doesn’t mention it here, he has a mission, to
kill his wife’s attacker, which keeps him grounded, unlike Sammy, who felt
adrift.
Again
the narrative is in reverse as Leonard wakes up but again does not know why he
is in a motel room. But, he finds Dodd stuck in a closet, his mouth taped.
Teddy shows up at the door. He sees his photo so he knows what Teddy looks
like. Teddy says Leonard called him for some help. At Teddy’s suggestion
Leonard asks the bound man who he is to make sure he isn’t John G. He has a
photo verifying that the man is Dodd and he has a note that says to take care of
him for Natalie. Leonard then realizes it is not his room, and must be Dodd’s,
because he found a gun in it and nothing relating to him. He says given his
condition, he couldn’t legally own a gun. Teddy says, “I fucking hope not,”
which is funny in the scene, but our laughter is undercut by the fact that we
know Leonard will shoot Teddy. Leonard uses Dodd’s gun to threaten him to leave
town. We now come to the scene, which we already saw, where he questions
Natalie about Dodd.
As
we return to the phone call, Leonard says Sammy’s wife was starting to fall
apart, not only because of the bills, but because she felt if her husband’s
condition wasn’t physical he should be able to overcome his problem. She is
seen as being hysterically frustrated with his inability to even write down a
phone message. Leonard tells the caller that he never claimed that Sammy was
faking. Leonard seems to want to alleviate his guilt over the (alleged) anguish
and pain suffered by the couple.
Leonard
is now in a bathroom with a bottle of whiskey in his hands, saying he doesn’t
feel drunk. He is taking a shower when Dodd walks in and they get into a fight.
We now see how Leonard overcomes the man and ties him up. He has a note that
contains Dodd’s location at a different motel than Leonard’s. The note also
says to help Natalie take care of Dodd. But Leonard forgot all of this when he
went to sleep and, as we saw, he realized later that it wasn’t his room, but
Dodd’s. We see him calling Teddy leaving a message to go there, which we see,
he did.
Retreating
further back in the timeline, Leonard finds himself running, trying to figure
out why. He thinks he is chasing Dodd, then realizes the man is coming after
him with his gun. Leonard goes to the Jaguar which already has the window smashed
as we saw earlier (or later, depending on how you look at it). He checks his
notes which has a description of Dodd and goes to where Dodd lives, but
accidentally goes to the wrong room. He busts in the door and accidentally
slams it against the wrong man. When he realizes his error he comically says,
“Sorry.” This scene emphasizes Leonard’s confusion (and ours, since we are
running in his shoes, so to speak), and shows how dangerous the lack of memory
can be not only for the afflicted but also for others around him. Leonard then
goes to the correct room and breaks in before Dodd returns. He says he looks
for a weapon and grabs the bottle of booze that’s in the room. He waits in the
bathroom. But then he forgets what he is doing, and that is why he said he
didn’t feel drunk, since he wasn’t drinking. So we are at the point where Dodd
surprises him in the shower.
Leonard
is at an abandoned industrial site, but then he drives away, his car window
intact at this earlier point. A pick-up truck follows him while he is driving,
honking, and Leonard doesn’t know who it is. The truck pulls up and it is Dodd
driving it, and the man points his gun at Leonard, who veers off and parks.
Dodd shows up and shoots out the window of the Jaguar as Leonard escapes with Dodd
in pursuit. We now know why he was running, even if Leonard, later, does not
recall.
Even
further back in the story, Leonard receives a phone call as he inks a tattoo
that says something about drugs being involved under the category of “Facts.”
We recede in time to when Leonard arrived at the deserted industrial site at
night. He has a bag that contains objects relating to his wife. He burns them,
including a hairbrush, a stuffed animal toy, and a book. We get flashbacks of
him with his wife. He asks why does she read the same story over and over
because he thought that the purpose is to discover what comes next. It is
ironic that here Leonard seems to stress the negative part of memory since it
spoils a tale if it is already known. His wife just enjoys the book, she says.
The film is commenting on storytelling in general, and especially movies. Many
see some movies many times because they relive the thrills, the craft, the
characters, etc., even if the plot is known. In Nolan’s complicated films, such
as this one, Inception, and Interstellar, a viewer can discover
something new with each repeated viewing.
Leonard
also burns a clock, which symbolically points to how time is destroyed for him
with his condition because without memory, as he noted earlier, he can’t
experience its passage. Importantly, we also have a flashback of Leonard
playfully pinching the exposed thigh of his wife as she recoils at the action.
This fleeting shot will be echoed significantly in the story. But, why is
Leonard burning these items that contain lasting memories of his family that
connect to events before the attack? Maybe some memories are too painful, and
we would like those to go away (As in Eternal
Sunshine of the Spotless Mind). He notes that he probably burned some of his
wife’s things before, and makes a seemingly contradictory statement but which
fits his torn state of mind when he addresses his dead wife, saying he “Can’t
remember to forget you.” Dawn breaks and that is when he drove away from the
desolate area, which reflects his emotional state.
While
on the phone he gets some information about the drug angle Leonard believes was
involved in the attack on his family. He notes that there was a car with blood
found in it near his house. He says that the police were not looking for John
G., so we realize Leonard is following his own theory on the crime. He has
numerous notes that he says he acquired from the authorities with whom he dealt
with in his job.
In
the phone conversation, Leonard says that drugs were also found in the
suspect’s car. He wonders why did the police say that the perpetrator was an
addict who broke into his house to rob it to buy drugs if he already had his
stash? He says the real criminal, John G., may have left the drugs there, or
planted them. The person on the other end of call offers that the man was a
dealer and that seems to be a reasonable explanation for the illegal substances
being in the car. Despite his handicap, it appears that Leonard strives to make
sense of the details surrounding the assault. The desire to solve the mystery
fuels his behavior.
We
then backtrack to how the blonde woman entered the story. Leonard calls an
escort service. She arrives and he wants to recreate the night of the attack,
possibly to jar his saved memories of the event to discover something he
overlooked. She is to place the objects that he will eventually burn around the
room. They stay in bed until he falls asleep. She is then supposed to slam the
door to wake him up. The experience turns out not to help Leonard, and instead
the desire to recall these horrible memories only makes him upset.
There
is a shift back to the phone call providing Sammy’s backstory. His wife visits
Leonard at his office. She says she hid food around the house to see if Sammy
would remember where it was when he was hungry, but it doesn’t work. She
appears desperate. Her words that Sammy “might be imagining this whole problem”
resonates with Leonard’s situation as we learn more about his story and
investigation. She asks Leonard if Sammy is faking, because if not, she would
say goodbye to the Sammy she knew and accept the one that has replaced him.
Leonard tells her that Sammy is physically able to make new memories. On the
phone Leonard says he thought he did the right thing because the wife needed
something to believe in. Leonard’s quest is similar because he requires a
purpose for his existence following his own trauma.
The
next previous event begins with Leonard getting into his car and finding Teddy
there, who, of course, he has forgotten. Teddy informs him that his business in
the town is finished, and he is only there because of Natalie, whose house he
just walked out of. Teddy says that Leonard shouldn’t trust Natalie, who has
seen his Jaguar and expensive suit and is working an angle. Teddy says that
Natalie’s boyfriend is a drug dealer. Teddy gives Leonard coasters which
display the name of the bar where Natalie works, which, of course, Leonard has
already visited, but doesn’t remember being there. Teddy says that if people
are looking for her boyfriend, they’ll come after her, and she will use Leonard
to protect her. Leonard is suspicious that maybe Teddy is involved in Natalie’s
situation, but Teddy claims she doesn’t even know him. Leonard asks why is
Teddy following him. Teddy just says he’s trying to help Leonard. However, we
know from a previous scene that Natalie said that her boyfriend had a meeting
with a man named Teddy, so we know they are linked in some way. We are in the
scene where Teddy tells him to go to the Discount Motel, because he wants
Leonard to stay away from Natalie, maybe to protect Leonard, but also to keep
him in the dark about Teddy’s activities. Leonard is resistant, and Teddy says
Leonard only knows who he used to be, but not what he has become, which echoes
his words that occurred in the earlier (that is, later) time. Leonard is like
Sammy, in that a trauma has changed who he is. Teddy tells Leonard to write on
his photo of her that he should trust Natalie. After Teddy leaves, he sees that
he has written the same thing about Teddy. He crosses out the negative line
about Natalie, because, like Fox Mulder in The
X-Files, he’s trying to decide which lie to believe.
While
on the telephone, he pulls off a bandage covering a healing tattoo, which says
he shouldn’t answer the phone. He then asks who he is talking to. Is he
forgetting who he is conversing with in the middle of the call? The other party
abruptly hangs up, which adds an ominous feel to the situation. The phone
starts ringing, but Leonard does not answer. He calls the front desk and says
he doesn’t want to receive any more calls. Later we see Burt the motel manager
coming to Leonard’s room saying that even though he didn’t want any calls,
there was a cop calling him. Leonard still refuses to take the call, as his
paranoia has grown.
As
the story backs up again, Leonard is in Natalie’s house, and he is desperately
looking for a pen to write down something before he forgets. Natalie gets out
of her car and approaches the house. She is bleeding from a facial wound. She
says Dodd beat her up after going to him as Leonard told her to do. She says
she told Dodd that she didn’t have Jimmy’s money, or his drugs. She says that a
man named Teddy took everything. She says Dodd didn’t believe her, said if she
didn’t have the drugs by the next day, he would kill her, and then started
hitting her. Leonard says he’ll go see Dodd. She gives him information about
Dodd, but said he might be looking for Leonard since she had to tell Dodd
something because of the beating, so she told him what car Leonard was driving.
But why that information? Leonard should have been more suspicious, but men
sometimes allow logic to be invalidated when a pretty woman is involved.
Leonard walks out of the house, where, as we saw, he found Teddy in his car.
We
regress to the time just before Natalie entered her house with a bloody face.
She is angry and nasty toward Leonard. She says that Dodd and his partners
think she took the money that belongs to her boyfriend, Jimmy (Larry Holden).
Jimmy took money and met “Some guy named Teddy,” and he hasn’t returned. When
she comes into the house she secretly puts all of the pens in her purse, so we
know she up to no good because she is preventing Leonard from recording what
happens. She accuses Leonard of protecting Teddy, who Leonard doesn’t even
remember at this point. She wants Leonard to help her by killing Dodd for her
and she tells him she will pay him. Leonard is outraged. We now see Natalie’s
true colors as she tells Leonard she will use him because of his disability,
and he won’t remember what she says and does. She is cruel as she tells Leonard
they will be friends or even lovers (which is what happens). She curses him and
his dead wife and provokes him by calling his wife a whore who gave Leonard
venereal disease that brought on his memory problems. She keeps piling on the
insults until he hits her. That is how she received the facial wounds. She then
leaves the house. Leonard helplessly searches to write down his fading memories
but can’t find any pens. Natalie comes in saying it was Dodd who beat her up,
as we witnessed previously. Leonard is a pathetic person here as he is
manipulated by an unscrupulous, selfish person who takes advantage of his
vulnerability brought on by his condition.
The
next scene has Leonard with Natalie as she offers her couch for him to sleep on
before he goes to the motel that Teddy tells him about. She asks about his
investigation, and he says that the police don’t think the man Leonard is
looking for exists. He tells her the story of the night of the attack, which
the audience sees dramatized. He heard glass shattering and his wife was not in
bed. There were muffled sounds coming from the bedroom. He grabbed his gun and
shot a man in the bathroom who was next to his wife, who was wrapped in
plastic. But, he was hit in the head with a blackjack and slammed into the
mirror by a second man, causing Leonard to have brain damage. He explains that
John G. (the second man) removed the dead man’s gun, replaced it with the sap
weapon, and left his car to make it look like there was only one assailant.
We
are back in Leonard’s motel room as he refuses to answer the phone. Someone
pushes an envelope under his door which has writing on the outside that urges
Leonard to take the calls. (Why not just knock and meet in person? Another
suspicious act). There is a picture of a smiling Leonard in the envelope with his shirt
off and he’s pointing to the blank space on his chest with a bloody hand. It’s
the spot he said he was leaving for when he caught up with John G. The question
is who took that photo?
Leonard
has a coaster from the bar that says he is supposed to meet Natalie there. At
the bar, she says they haven’t met before, but she heard about “the memory
guy.” Natalie says her boyfriend told her about Leonard. His name is Jimmy
Grants, which sounds a lot like John G. She says Jimmy said Leonard was staying
at the Discount Inn. Natalie also says there was a cop interested in a guy with
memory issues. She wonders how Leonard knew to see her and he says he found the
coaster in his pocket saying to meet her. She questions him by saying, “Your pocket?” This remark is a clue that
maybe Leonard wasn’t the person that the coaster was meant for.
Leonard
is now back on the phone, and we now know he is talking with the cop. He
reveals that he has feelings such as anger and guilt, but can’t associate the
emotions with events. It is impossible for most to comprehend how feelings
could have no connection to experiences. He says maybe he is suffering a
penance for not understanding Sammy. He then tells the policeman what happened
to Sammy and his wife. At the couple’s house, she tells Sammy that it’s time
for her insulin shot. She then waits a couple of minutes and says again it’s
time for her shot. She does this one more time as Sammy gives her three shots
close together. Leonard says maybe she was giving her husband the ultimate test
to prevent her from being harmed, or she couldn’t live with the situation any
longer and wanted to die. She went into a coma and did not recover. Sammy
couldn’t understand what happened, afterwards not even remembering that his
wife had died, and he eventually went to live in an institution. Leonard admits
he was wrong about Sammy and his wife, who wasn’t concocting a plan to get
insurance money based on her husband's supposed illness. Leonard thought he saw
recognition in Sammy’s eyes when Leonard visited. But now that Leonard has the
same condition he knows that Sammy faked remembering Leonard, just as Leonard
now does, and pretended to act like he knew others, because that was what was
expected of people so as not to look like “a freak.”
We
then witness Leonard in a tattoo parlor having the license plate number inked
on his arm as one of his “facts.” Teddy shows up and says that Leonard has to
get out of there, needs to change his clothes and his car, and get away and
adopt a new identity. Which is what has actually happened to Leonard, as we learn.
He says the cop is looking for Leonard. Teddy says the man is a bad cop who
knows Leonard is not good on the phone and keeps calling and shoving notes
under his door to shake Leonard up. The cop supposedly is looking into John G.
being a local drug dealer and who turns out to be Jimmy Grants. The cop wants
to get info on Jimmy’s drug operation and thinks Leonard is involved. Teddy
knows the policeman because he claims he was a snitch for the cop. Leonard
finds the bar coaster in the pocket of his jacket. However, Leonard has the
note that says don’t believe Teddy’s lies. He goes out a back window, gets into
the Jaguar, and heads to the bar to meet Natalie. When he pulls into the
parking lot, Natalie is taking out trash and thinks it’s Jimmy, because Leonard
is driving a car that looks like her boyfriend’s Jaguar.
Leonard
is on the phone, wearing a plaid shirt, not the expensive suit that we already
saw him in, talking with the cop about Jimmy, who he believes to be John G.,
running a drug operation out of his girlfriend’s bar. The cop says he is in the
lobby and Leonard says he’ll meet him there. At this point, Leonard does not
have the scratches on his face that exist throughout all of the scenes we
already saw. The lack of color now makes the events seem older, less vivid,
just like a fading memory. The cop turns out to be Teddy calling himself
Officer Gammell (the name on the DMV information we earlier saw Natalie
provides (but which, of course, is later in the timeline), and who has made
Leonard believe that Jimmy and John G. are one in the same. They go outside and
Leonard takes Teddy’s photo. He tells Leonard to just write Teddy on the photo
because he is undercover, and doesn’t want anyone to think he’s a cop. We know
now that he didn’t want Leonard to realize he and the cop are one and the same
person. He gives Leonard directions as to where John G is.
If
you haven’t already guessed at this point in the film the destination is the
deserted building from the beginning of the film. The truck that Teddy said was
there for a while is really Leonard’s pickup. Jimmy shows up in his Jaguar and
calls for Teddy, who set up the meeting. Jimmy recognizes Leonard, calling him
the “memory” man. Leonard knocks him down and tells him to take off his clothes
in case Leonard gets blood on his and then he can use Jimmy’s clothing. Jimmy
says he has $200,000 dollars in his car and thought he had a deal with Teddy.
Leonard has flashbacks of his wife as he confronts Jimmy. The two struggle and
now we see how Leonard received the facial scratches. Leonard chokes Jimmy
until it looks as if the man is dead. He takes a photo of Jimmy on the floor
and puts on Jimmy’s clothes. He drags Jimmy into the basement. Jimmy utters the
word “Sammy,” before he dies. Leonard is stunned, wondering how Jimmy would
know about Sammy.
Teddy
shows up, and Leonard pulls out his photos to see if he knows the man. Leonard
is already forgetting what has happened and suspects Teddy is involved, showing
up at that location. He lures Teddy in and then hits him in the head with his
camera. Teddy says, “Lenny! That shit kills!” It is an appropriate response in
this specific case since Leonard has written on his photo of Teddy that he
should kill the man. Leonard sees credentials that show that Teddy is a cop. He
reassures Leonard that he sent him there to get John G. Leonard then asks about
the $200,000 (How can Leonard remember this fact? This is a flaw in the script
to my mind). Teddy says that he made it look as if he was going to provide
amphetamines to be bought by Jimmy. Teddy says he was helping Leonard find his
man but wanted them to make some money, too. Teddy says Jimmy did some of his
drug business out of the Discount Inn and Jimmy told Burt to let him know if
anybody was “snooping around.” That is how Jimmy knew who Leonard was.
We
now find out what is supposedly really going in this convoluted tale. Teddy
says Jimmy knew about Sammy because Leonard tells everybody about Sammy, but he
says the story gets better as Leonard repeats it, suggesting how Leonard (and
all of us) embellish our recollections. Teddy then says, “So you lie to
yourself to be happy … We all do it.” His remark is a comment on how everyone
changes facts in time to accommodate the way we want to remember the past, adding
some things and deleting others we would rather not deal with. Leonard seems at
a loss as to what Teddy is saying. Teddy then declares that Leonard’s wife
survived the attack. She didn’t believe that Leonard’s memory condition
existed. She suffered terribly not only because of Leonard’s behavior but also
because of her not believing he was really physically ill. We then have a shot
of Leonard, not Sammy, preparing an insulin shot for his wife. Teddy says that
Leonard kept telling himself it was Sammy’s wife who had diabetes until he
believed that was the truth. When we earlier had an image of Leonard pinching
his wife on the thigh, we now get one where he is giving her an insulin shot.
Teddy says that the truth is that Sammy was really a faker, and Leonard exposed
him. Teddy says that Sammy didn’t even have a wife, and it was Leonard’s wife
who had diabetes. Did Leonard make up his wife’s death due to the assault to
relieve his guilt for killing his own wife from an insulin overdose? Leonard
refuses to believe this horrible possibility and says his wife was not a
diabetic. Teddy asks him, “You sure?” Is Teddy telling the truth? We don’t know
for sure, but he appears to be convincing. Teddy says he can only make Leonard
remember what Leonard wants to be true.
Leonard
says that Jimmy wasn’t the guy who assaulted his wife. But Teddy says Jimmy was
good enough to fit the bill. Leonard says he’ll know when he gets the right
guy. Teddy says he was the cop assigned to Leonard’s case and he believed
Leonard’s story about a second attacker. He helped find the real John G. a
while back and Leonard already killed him. Yet, Leonard did not get his
satisfaction. Leonard’s life fits that definition of hell as being the
repetition of the same unsavory actions. Teddy says the bad guys who invaded
Leonard’s home were a couple of junkies who didn’t realize Leonard’s wife
didn’t live alone. Teddy says he thought when Leonard killed the real John G.
that it would shock Leonard into remembering, but it just didn’t “stick.” Teddy
says the picture of Leonard smiling, pointing to the spot on his bare chest as
the place to note he caught his man, was taken by Teddy when Leonard killed the
man he was after. Teddy says he wanted to see Leonard that happy again. Teddy
says he gave Leonard a reason to keep living by his repeating his success
because his satisfaction would fade away along with Leonard’s memory. In a way,
Teddy is also stuck in the same hell as Leonard as he repeats the pursuit of
the now imaginary assailant who is no longer alive. He tells Leonard, “you
don’t want the truth. You make up your own truth.” One may say the film speaks
to us today, where some people deny facts that don’t satisfy their version of
what they want to be true. Teddy says that Leonard took out the pages of the
police report so he could create “a puzzle” he could never solve, because
unsolved mysteries and conspiracies give some people a connection to something
beyond the bland, simple facts. Teddy says his mom called him Teddy, but his
name is John Edward Gammell, so he, too, can be just another one of the
multiple men Leonard has been seeking. And we know from the beginning of the
film, that is who Leonard turns Teddy into.
In
his truck, Leonard takes the bullets out of the gun and leaves them on the
seat, saying in the narrative that he is not a killer, he just wanted “to make
things right,” He says to himself he can just forget what Teddy told him. He
writes on Teddy’s photo not to believe his lies. He then burns the photo of
Jimmy to convince himself that he hasn’t killed anyone yet and that John G. is
still out there. He writes down Teddy’s license plate, and later Natalie
verifies that Teddy is John G. Leonard takes Jimmy’s car so he can start his
quest again.
As
he drives, he says “I have to believe in a world outside my own mind. I have to
believe that my actions still have meaning, even if I can’t remember them. I
have to believe that when I close my eyes, the world’s still here.” He closes
his eyes, then opens them, in a sort of reboot process. He stops at the Tattoo
parlor where he puts Teddy’s license number on his arm. The film’s final words
are, “Now, where was I?” The circle of self-deception continues. The movie
implies that we are not satisfied with answers, but are constantly in need of
questioning to give us purpose. We say we seek the truth, but don’t seem to be
content if the truth stagnates us and does not lead to more questioning, and we
will welcome misdirection if it offers us a road on which to travel.
After
a week off, the next film is Downhill
Racer.
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