first, natalie's situation. jimmy was her boyfriend, and he owed dodd the $200,000. jimmy knew teddy and leonard. jimmy went to see teddy, but teddy sent leonard in his place, and leonard was supposed to kill jimmy. he did that. while he was there, teddy reveals to leonard that this wasn't the real "John G", but that leonard had already killed the real murderer a while ago. teddy was telling the truth about that part. teddy says that leonard made up most of the story about sammy jankis, because leonard needed to lie to himself to feel like his life had a purpose. sammy ended up being a con man. (who knows if all of this is true? maybe we're not meant to know.) anyway, leonard DOES realize that teddy was his friend, and that teddy was just trying to give him a purpose to his life, giving him some other 'John G' to go after. and then in the car, leonard decides to lie to himself and send himself on a long chase after another john g, john edward gammel (teddy). "do i lie to myself to be happy? in your case, teddy, i will."
and then leonard heads to the bar where natalie works, bc in the suit he steals from jimmy, there was a coaster that said 'come by after...natalie' which was intended for jimmy, not leonard. (i didn't realize this the first time). so he goes to the bar, and pulls up next to the dumpster, where natalie is throwing out the trash. she recognized the jaguar and thinks it's jimmy, but realizes it's someone else in jimmy's clothes and car. she knew of leonard because jimmy knew him and talked about him. she doesn't say anything because she's that 'femme fatale' character, and she has a scheme already brewing in her mind. and she realizes that teddy must have screwed jimmy over. leonard then walks into the bar, not knowing who natalie is, not realizing that the little coaster with the note was not intended for him. she plays off of this, remembering that jimmy had told her about this guy named leonard who has no short term memory. she begins using him to try getting rid of teddy, and to get dodd off her back.
remember the scene when she manipulates leonard? what i realized was that you see her first walking into the house, before leonard hits her, and she takes all the pens from the drawers and hides them in her bag. then she provokes leonard to hit her, and then the whole thing happens where leonard can't find a pen and forgets that natalie is manipulating her. she tells him that dodd beat her up, and that she wants leonard to either kill dodd or put him onto teddy. (at this point, leonard asks for a pen, and natalie says, in an awkward way, 'in my bag'.) and now, dodd will be off her back. so, leonard ends up scaring dodd away, and now natalie only has teddy left to get rid of. lucky for her, leonard lied to himself and tattooed teddy's license plate number onto his body. so, that's how leonard ends up killing teddy. it works out "nicely" for both of them.
a few other things i realized.
at the end of the movie, when teddy is explaing to leonard that leonard made up a lot of the sammy jankis story, we see flashbacks of sammy in the hospital. two people walk by sammy in that scene, and his eyes follow both of them with interest, like a little boy. the first one walks to sammy's right, and then, another person walks to his left, walking between the camera and sammy. as soon as that person passes by the camera, there is a one frame shot of someone sitting where sammy was just sitting, and it was leonard. kind of like a fight club moment.
and while teddy is still talking about how leonard lied to himself, you see leonard in a shot, laying in bed with his wife, and his tattoos are on his body. it felt like that scene was supposed to make us realize how everything was all jumbled in leonard's own head as well. "memory is unreliable" and remember that one spot on his left pec that was not written on? there was something written on it in that shot. it looked like it said "i did it."
also, overall, the chapters started off being maybe 7 minutes in length, getting shorter and shorter as the movie went on. it was like the movie was going in a downward spiral, traveling faster and faster, getting more frantic and chaotic. which fits in very nicely with the idea that this movie was one of the best neo noir films. it seriously was.
oh, one more thing. a friend mentioned that teddy seemed very intent on getting leonard out of the city while they were talking in the tattoo parlor, right after jimmy got killed, and that it was weird how after that moment, teddy didn't seem to be in a rush anymore to get him out of there. the next time he sees lenny, he asks "i thought you were getting out of here" but eventually doesn't seem to care about that so much. i think it happened that way because teddy wanted to give leonard something else to go after again. teddy mentioned that he just wanted to see that happy face on leonard again, which is why he allowed leonard to kill jimmy. so, in a way, teddy was trying to be a good friend, and got himself killed.
all very tragic. i love this movie.
so, now that i've talked about all this plot and detail stuff, maybe i can share my opinion/experience of the movie. i basically LOVED 'Memento' because it let me get into the life of leonard. i guess there are many things in a movie that i try to appreciate, but the thing that makes me LOVE a movie is how it allows me to become the character. i should also mention that i love film noir, and 'memento' definitely was continuing the tradition of great modern neo noir films like L.A. Confidential, Blade Runner, and Dark City (sort of). these films tend to have a confused main character who is somewhat (or completely) disoriented throughout much of the film, a femme fatale who i can both love and hate, dark (sometimes figurative) settings, feelings of emptiness and doom.
some people have said that Memento is a gimmick. i disagree, somewhat. one of the definitions for the word 'gimmick' is "an ingenious and usually new scheme or angle."
i would call this movie a gimmick only using that definition. i disagree that this movie was structured in a way just to trick us. people say "the backward narrative has been done before." that's true. but it was never so closely linked with the mental and psychological state of the main character. it truly was an ingenious and new scheme or angle to a movie, a new way to help the audience understand the characters. people also say "this story wouldn't be interesting at all if it were told chronologically." that's true as well. but it wasn't told that way, and that's why it was interesting. the whole structure of the movie gave me the ability to see things almost as leonard did. it wasn't exactly the same of course, but it was as close as i could get.
there is a moment when leonard is telling natalie about his wife. when asked what he remembers about her, leonard says "i remember fragments, bits and pieces of memories, and when you put them together you get a person." as he says that, on the screen the movie shows his wife's hands shutting off the faucet in the kitchen, her hair being blown by the wind coming through the living room window, the sunlight landing on her head as she reads a book. that was my favorite part of the movie because i am currently in a situation where i don't quite have those fragments of someone who is very special to me. my girlfriend and i live about 3000 miles away from each other, she in san francisco, and i in boston. we've only seen each other for a total of about 5 days in our lives. when i think about her, i can hear her voice (the way it would sound on the phone), the way she writes her emails and stories (she's a writer), and maybe if i try really hard, i can remember the way her hands and hair felt in february. but honestly, i don't really have those fragments that leonard was talking about. the bits and pieces of the way someone walks down the stairs or holds the telephone or the different shapes that her eyes can take on. no matter how much i talk or write to her, no matter how long i look at the pictures we took while she was in boston a few months ago, i can't form those pieces. i'm going out to san francisco in about a week (today is may 8, 2001). i can't wait to see her, to be able to touch her hand, to feel her arm bump against mine as we walk down the street in almost-straight lines, to know that she's RIGHT THERE. but in a way, i'm also looking forward just as much to coming back to boston and having a few more of those fragments in my mind, fragments that will remind me that mijin isn't just a voice or letters on my computer screen, but that she's a part of me, and a part of my mind. maybe that's why i liked Memento so much. because it made me realize all this.
anyway, i also liked when leonard was talking about how he needs to heal, to slowly let go of his wife's memory. he first says "how can i remember to forget you?" which made an impression, but then later he says "but how can i heal if i can't feel time?" that line hit me like a ton of bricks. not because i've had a similar experience, but because it was then that i felt like i was completely connected with leonard. to me, the most important part of leonard's existence is that every morning he wakes up and feels all the intensity of having recently lost his wife. i was so sad when he said those words. i felt tortured, as i'm sure he did. this is why i didn't hate leonard or feel disturbed at the end of the movie. if every morning is a flood of revelations, angst, sadness and confusion, i would also do anything to give my life the feeling of purpose.
well, those are my thoughts so far. i'm sure there will be more as time goes on. thanks for reading all this. if you want to read what some other people have said, here are some links worth looking at. you can access them from www.mrqe.com - movie review query engine. i've read most of them and these are the reviews that are worthwhile.