History Fridge / Memento

* Naturally Christopher "StuntCasting" Nolan would cast Carrie-Ann Moss, Joe Pantoliano and Stephen Tobolowsky - the former two having most recently played an innocent heroine and sketchy bad guy, respectively, in [[{{Film/The Matrix}} a movie about people lost in the impermanent web of perceived reality]] and the latter being particularly known as the comic relief in [[{{Film/GroundhogDay}} a movie about a man stuck repeating the same patterns ''ad infinitum'']]. The point being made is that the audience, like Leonard, are blinded by their preconceptions: Natalie (Moss) is not a benign love interest, Teddy (Pantoliano) is far from just a weaselly traitor, and Sammy (Tobolowsky) isn't at all an annoying comic relief.

* When Sammy Jankis is gets the electric shocks in the flashbacks, he barks out, "What the fuck?!" and "Test ''this,'' you fucking quack!" while giving the doctor the finger. It seems out of place for a mild-mannered accountant to use language like that... until you realize that, most likely, Leonard himself was the one receiving the shocks, and Leonard is quite the [[SirSwearsALot potty mouth.]]

* Naturally Christopher "StuntCasting" Nolan would cast Carrie-Ann Moss, Joe Pantoliano and Stephen Toblowsky - the former two having most recently played an innocent heroine and sketchy bad guy, respectively, in [[{{Film/The Matrix}} a movie about people lost in the impermanent web of perceived reality]] and the latter being particularly known as the comic relief in [[{{Film/GroundhogDay}} a movie about a man stuck repeating the same patterns ''ad infinitum'']]. The point being made is that the audience, like Leonard, are blinded by their preconceptions: Natalie (Moss) is not a benign love interest, Teddy (Pantoliano) is far from just a weaselly traitor, and Sammy (Toblowsky) isn't at all an annoying comic relief.

* Naturally Christopher "StuntCasting" Nolan would cast Carrie-Ann Moss, Joe Pantoliano and Stephen Toblowsky - the former two having most recently played an innocent heroine in [[{{Film/The Matrix}} a movie about people lost in the impermanent web of perceived reality]] and the latter being particularly known for [[{{Film/GroundhogDay}} a movie about a man stuck repeating the same patterns ''ad infinitum'']]. The point being made is that the audience, like Leonard, are blinded by their preconceptions: Natalie (Moss) is not a benign love interest, Teddy (Pantoliano) is far from just a weaselly traitor, and Sammy (Toblowsky) isn't at all an annoying comic relief.

** The final moment of the film reinforces this - despite it being the oldest section chronologically, it teases the audience with the idea of Leonard crashing his car while driving with his eyes closed. We know he ''doesn't'', because the rest of the events of the film have not shown him recovering from a car crash, but it's still an incredibly tense moment that encapsulates how he lives his life - wandering around blind to the important details because he's too busy trying to center himself.

* Naturally Christopher "StuntCasting" Nolan would cast Carrie-Ann Moss, Joe Pantoliano and Stephen Toblowsky - the former two having most recently played an innocent heroine in {{Film/The Matrix a movie about the ephemeral nature of perceived reality}} and the latter being particularly known for {{Film/GroundhogDay a movie about a man stuck repeating the same patterns ad infinitum}}. The point being made is that the audience, like Leonard, are blinded by their preconceptions: Natalie (Moss) is not a benign love interest, Teddy (Pantoliano) is far from just a weaselly traitor, and Sammy (Toblowsky) isn't at all an annoying comic relief.

* Come to think of it, if Leonard's memories of the assault are anything to go by, it's really unlikely that it could have been done by a single attacker: Lenny shot the first one almost point-blank, probably killing or incapacitating him instantly, and he himself, judging by his severe memory loss, probably passed out within seconds after having crashed into the mirror. So how could they have inflicted it on each other then? Looks like the police investigation WAS shoddy after all.

* One thing that lends credence to the theory that [[spoiler:Teddy is telling the truth about Leonard's wife surviving the attack and it was Leonard who killed her]] is that even in the heat of their argument at the end, [[spoiler:Teddy always specifically says that the assailant raped Leonard's wife, never including that he killed her.]]

* Most of Leonard's tattoos are written in a way that you can read them normally. The tattoo about the man who killed his wife is mirrored. When Natalie points out that the tattoo is backwards, Leonard says "It's... it must be for when I've found him." [[spoiler:Leonard doesn't know it, but if he ever finds the killer, he'll be looking at a mirror.]]
* Teddy repeatedly asks Lenny for his car keys or tries to bluff Lenny into letting him drive his car throughout the film, without success. [[spoiler:This is because Lenny has recently murdered the expensive and conspicuous Jaguar's owner, and Teddy is trying to dispose of it discreetly, as well as get his hands on the $200,000 inside.]]

* At the end of the movie, you can be left with two conclusions: [[spoiler:that Teddy was lying to Leonard, or that he was telling the truth. Which means that either Teddy is a ManipulativeBastard, or that Leonard is taking advantage of himself just as much as the rest of the cast. Neither interpretation is especially happy, but which one is worse?]]

* Teddy repeatedly asks Lenny for his car keys or tries to bluff Lenny into letting him drive his car throughout the film, without success. [[spoiler:This is because Lenny has recently murdered the expensive and conspicuous Jaguar's owner, and Teddy is trying to dispose of it discreetly.]]

* Leonard's story about Sammy Jankiss is not only revealing about how Leonard is able to form new memories, its also, possibly, Leonard's only real memory of how his wife actually died.

* ''Film/{{Memento}}'''s backwards narrative can feel somewhat gimmicky. but it forces us to live through Leonard's perception of the world, seeing a scene with no knowledge of the (usually critical) events that lead up to it.

* One thing that lends credence to the theory that Teddy is telling the truth about Leonard's wife surviving the attack and it was Leonard who killed her is that even in the heat of their argument at the end, Teddy always specifically says that the assailant raped Leonard's wife, never including that he killed her.

* At the end of the movie, you can be left with two conclusions: that Teddy was lying to Leonard, or that he was telling the truth. Which means that either Teddy is a ManipulativeBastard, or that Leonard is taking advantage of himself just as much as the rest of the cast. Neither interpretation is especially happy, but which one is worse?

* ''Film/{{Memento}}'''s backwards narrative can feel somewhat gimmicky. but it forces us to live through Leonard's perception of the world, seeing a scene with no knowledge of the (usually critical) events that lead up to it.

* ''Film/{{Memento}}'' struck me as being a good film, but the backwards narrative being somewhat gimmicky. It wasn't until a little while later that I realised that it forces us to live through Leonard's perception of the world, seeing a scene with no knowledge of the (usually critical) events that lead up to it - Slave

* ''{{Memento}}'' struck me as being a good film, but the backwards narrative being somewhat gimmicky. It wasn't until a little while later that I realised that it forces us to live through Leonard's perception of the world, seeing a scene with no knowledge of the (usually critical) events that lead up to it - Slave