Leonard, played by Guy Pearce, is trying to track down the man who raped and murdered his wife. However, the difficulty of locating his wife's killer is compounded by the fact that he suffers from a rare, untreatable form of memory loss. Leonard obtained this short term memory loss when the man who raped and killed his wife shoved him into a mirror, causing brain damage. The movie plot, like his short term memory disorder, is not in order. The movie opens with the scene that actually happened at the end of Leonard’s “journey” and then heads back in time, cross-referencing the present-day journey of Leonard. Teddy is another character that Leonard suspects raped and murdered his husband. However, towards the end of the movie (in present time) Teddy tells Leonard some valuable information. Another character that shaped Leonard's journey to find who raped and killed his wife is Natalie. Natalie helps Leonard with his question while Leonard helps Natalie with her problem. Leonard writes down every important detail about a suspect, Jimmy G., who he thinks killed his wife in the form of tattoos, polaroids, and description of people/places on the polaroids so that when his short term memory restarts, he will be able to continue to work to solve the mystery.

The thing that I liked about the movie was that it really put the viewer in the minds of a person with short term memory loss. The way the movie was made, being out of order, also drew me in to pay attention for when future scenes of Leonard would be coming up (because they had already happened in the past) and what clues could be connected. One thing I did not like about the movie was that it showed what happened between two characters right at the beginning of the film. I was very confused for the first twenty to thirty minutes too because I was not aware that the movie would be composed unchronological. Additionally, I felt bored about halfway through because the ending of the “future scenes” (which were already played in the movie) would be so similar to the “past scenes” (which would be happening right after) because they were chronologically right next to each other. Guy Pearce, who played Leonard, did a great job acting as a person with short term memory loss. It convinced me that this actually happened to him, which is always a good sign of a good actor. One thing I found fascinating about the editing techniques was that the “present” was in black and white, which made me think it was actually in the past, even though it was not. The editing skills, by cutting the present with the past, made for a very interesting film to view for the first time. 

Overall, I would recommend this movie. Memento brings the viewer into the mind of someone who can seem very troubled and confused but actually is working to live their life in a somewhat normal way. Additionally, this movie made me think and made me connect the dots in my head, otherwise, the film would not make sense. The overall meaning and purpose of the film were to show that sometimes when we don’t like the things that we do, we alter the way our memory looks to make us feel better. That theme was very clear to me and is why I recommend it.