Momento Movie Analysis

This movie was very difficult to follow and almost needs to be watched twice to fully understand exactly what the director and writer Christopher Nolan was trying to get across. The movie is about a man named Leonard Shelby (played by Guy Pearce) who suffers from Anterograde Amnesia. Anterograde Amnesia is the disability to create new memories beyond the ones the victim had before the trauma that caused the amnesia. Leonard copes with his amnesia by relating to a client he had while he was an insurance agent. The client’s name was Sammy Jenkins and he suffered from the same amnesia as Leonard. Leonard was working on Sammy’s case trying to prove that unlike his own amnesia, Sammy was mentally ill. Leonard told this story to everyone to explain he amnesia. Leonard’s amnesia was brought on when he was struck in the head while attempting to save his wife who was being attacked by two men during a home invasion in the middle of the night. The last thing that Leonard remembers (or what he thinks he remember) is seeing his wife die. After this Leonard commits himself to avenging his wife’s death and finding her killer.

The movie goes back and forth between black and white scenes, and regular color. The first scene is in black and white. Leonard is in a motel room, seemingly puzzled as to why he is there. He takes a call from a stranger claiming to be a policeman who knows who killed his wife and deviously giving him more clues to the alleged killer. To remember details of his wife’s death, Leonard had been tattooing clues and events on his body. The caller was indeed a police however he is corrupt and selling drugs on the side. The police (named Teddy) told Leonard that he could find the man that killed his wife in the motel lobby. Leonard had a tattoo on his chest that said “Kill John G. Raped and murdered my wife. The drug dealer Teddy had set Leonard up to meet was named Jimmy Grantz. As Leornard was hassling Jimmy, Jimmy faintly whispered “Sammy” It is still unknown how Jimmy knew about Sammy but this let Leonard know that Jimmy could not have been his wife’s killer. It turns out that Teddy was only using Leonard to kill the drug dealer off for him.