The filmmaker calls us, we shouldn't answer, but we forget. Watching movies is self-delusional, and with detective stories it is a game of wits between viewer and writer to outwit and manipulate each other just as here between Lenny and Teddy. Remembering his wife increases the intensity behind the psychosis - remembering his investigator gives him identity and focus in refining the condition - knowing all this transforms the idea behind the film into something of genius.That's because it is deeply self-referential: us looking at a film, especially at a mystery, is just the same as looking at a few polaroids and trying to create/remember a past. The order and ritual is not to cope with, but to create the condition. Lenny decides to get even with Teddy, so plants a seed that he will use later to justify killing Teddy.-It is essential to know that Lenny was never an insurance investigator, and that his condition is self-delusional. Jimmy's girlfriend Natalie also manipulates Lenny to first chase off Dodd who is looking for the missing money. The cop Teddy is crooked and exploits Lenny in a doublecross drug deal, getting him to kill Jimmy. Over time, the condition becomes more pronounced and embedded. Together, they track down the petty crook and kill him. Ties up with the cop who investigated the case. Just sit back, try to relax though that's difficult in this movie, and find out just how twisted and complex Leonard's world is.This film will leave its own memento on your mind, and you'll have a hard time forgetting how much you enjoyed it. But you might get frustrated because you don't know what's going on. By living it backwards, you, like Leonard, have no knowledge of what came before.It's brilliant story telling. and you won't know everything until the last scene. But is that all of the story? You've yet to find out. In the next scene you see a previous meeting between the two which sheds more light on their relationship. In one scene you see Leonard getting information from a person who knows him - maybe a good person maybe bad. You live the story in reverse order so that you never know more than Leonard does. Does he like this person? Does he trust this person? Is this the killer? He doesn't know unless he's scribbled a note.Don't worry about trying to empathize with Leonard because Writer/Director Christopher Nolan puts you right in Leonard's shoes. When someone knows his name, he checks Polaroids to see if he knows them. Instead he tattoos himself with mementos of his search. Now he's on a hunt to find the murderer but with no way of remembering names, dates, places, facts and faces. He hasn't been able to form new memories since the night his wife was murdered. Guy Pearce is a man with no short-term memory.
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January 2023
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