Memento (2001) Guy Pearce Leonard Selby Carrie-Anne Moss Natalie Joe Pantoliano Teddy Mark Boone Junior Jr. Burt Stephen Tobolowsky Sammy Jankins Harriet Sansom Harris Mrs Jankis Callum Keith Rennie Dodd Larry Holden Jimmy Grantz Russ Fega Waiter Jorja Fox Leonard's Wife Thomas Lennon Doctor Kimberly Campbell Blonde Marianne Muellerleile Tattooist Directed by: Christopher Nolan Produced by: Aaron Ryder, William Tyrer, Chris J. Ball A robber attacks a married couple, killing the woman and leaving the man for dead. As he convalesces, the man struggles to overcome amnesia through the chaos of memory loss induced by his injuries. Finding himself within rag-tag moments of his past, he attempts to remember the vital details and solve the mystery behind his wife's murder. ========== Memento chronicles two separate stories of Leonard, an ex-insurance investigator who can no longer build new memories, as he attempts to find the murderer of his wife, which is the last thing he remembers. One story line movies forward in time while the other tells the story backwards revealing more each time. ========== A memory inside a memory, Memento is a complicated head spinning adventure. Leonard is determined to avenge his wife's murder. However, unable to remember anything that happens day-to-day due to a condition he sustained, short term memory loss, he has to write himself note after note that still don't mean anything after he falls asleep. The film goes back in time to reveal each little bit of the puzzle as he tries to find out the person who killed his wife and makes the audience feel just as confused as he is. The narrative closely follows a phone call Pearce has in which he talks about Sammy Jankis a former client of his who he believed had the same condition. The film takes an unexpected twist as the two characters have a lot more in common than is initially put across. ========== Leonard is an insurance investigator whose memory has been damaged following a head injury he sustained after intervening on his wife's murder. His quality of life has been severely hampered after this event, and he can now only live a comprehendable life by tattooing notes on himself and taking pictures of things with a Polaroid camera. The movie is told in forward flashes of events that are to come that compensate for his unreliable memory, during which he has liaisons with various complex characters. Leonard badly wants revenge for his wife's murder, but, as numerous characters explain, there may be little point if he won't remember it in order to provide closure for him. The movie veers between these future occurrences and a telephone conversation Leonard is having in his motel room in which he compares his current state to that of a client whose claim he once dealt with. ========== Point blank in the head a man shoots another. In flashbacks, each one earlier in time than what we've just seen, the two men's pasts unfold. Leonard, as a result of a blow to the head during an assault on his wife, has no short-term memory. He's looking for his wife's killer, compensating for his disability by taking Polaroids, annotating them and tattooing important facts on his body. We meet the loquacious Teddy and the seductive Natalie (a barmaid who promises to help) and we glimpse Leonard's wife through memories from before the assault. Leonard also talks about Sammy Jankis, a man he knew with a similar condition. Has Leonard found the killer? Who's manipulating whom?