momento (2000) - christopher nolan

Many medical experts have cited Memento as one of the most realistic and accurate depictions of anterograde amnesia in any motion picture. Caltech neuroscientist Christof Koch called Memento "the most accurate portrayal of the different memory systems in the popular media," while physician Esther M. Sternberg, Director of the Integrative Neural Immune Program at the National Institute of Mental Health, identified the film as "close to a perfect exploration of the neurobiology of memory." Sternberg concludes: "This thought-provoking thriller is the kind of movie that keeps reverberating in the viewer's mind, and each iteration makes one examine preconceived notions in a different light. Memento is a movie for anyone interested in the workings of memory and, indeed, in what it is that makes our own reality."

Clinical neuropsychologist Sallie Baxendale writes in Memories aren't made of this: amnesia at the movies: "The overwhelming majority of amnesic characters in films bear little relation to any neurological or psychiatric realities of memory loss... Apparently inspired partly by the neuropsychological studies of the famous patient HM (who developed severe anterograde memory impairment after neurosurgery to control his epileptic seizures) and the temporal lobe amnesic syndrome, the film documents the difficulties faced by Leonard, who develops a severe anterograde amnesia after an attack in which his wife is killed. Unlike in most films in this genre, this amnesic character retains his identity, has little retrograde amnesia, and shows several of the severe everyday memory difficulties associated with the disorder. The fragmented, almost mosaic quality to the sequence of scenes in the film also reflects the 'perpetual present' nature of the syndrome." Wiki.

What is memory anyway?

There are several ways that writer-director Christopher Nolan could explain these plot holes. Here's one: If Leonard repeats something enough, he can condition himself to remember it. That's how he remembers he has short-term memory loss; that's how he remembers his argument with the cops about the second rapist. Unfortunately this means the story is reduced to "He can't make new memories—except when he can," and the already-murky plot turns to mush.

A better—and by no means mutually exclusive—argument is that Leonard's condition isn't physical at all but psychological. Leonard is capable of making new memories and does, at times (he remembers the insulin story, although the protagonists get smudged, as if in a dream). Mostly, though, he chooses to forget everything in order to a) bypass pain; and b) give his life meaning. But if his condition is a defense mechanism brought on by his wife's rape, shouldn't he have shaken out of it before the third insulin injection killed her? And if his short-term memory loss was brought on by the pain of his wife's rape, why does he choose to remember the rape? Is he torturing himself? Is he torturing us? And is his memory loss after his wife's death different than his memory loss after his wife's rape?

More and more, Memento looks like an Escher painting. If the source of the waterfall is the pool beneath the waterfall, how does the water flow up? If Leonard can't remember (except when he can), and it's all a defense mechanism to avoid painful memories (except for the most painful ones), then when did he begin to forget? And why? Slate.