Memento

I had to watch the film Memento for my COMM 225 class, and I enjoyed every minute of it. The film was different than anything I had seen before. It was about a man who was trying to figure out who killed his wife, but the only problem was he had a condition where he had no short term memory. When his wife was killed the killer hit him over the head causing him to only remember things prior to the incident. He could only remember things for about 10 minutes at a time and then he would completely forget what he was doing, who he was talking to, or what he was talking about. What made this film so unique was the way it was portrayed on screen. You start off with him looking over the body of a man he just shot, then it goes backwards from there. The scenes unfold from what he remembers from the pictures and clues he has. You, as the audience, only get to see what is happening as the main character remembers it. This allowed a direct connection between audience and main character, sucking you in right from the start. It also had the element of you never know what would happen next, meaning you had to watch every single minute of the film because it had elements that were key to the plot, which only occurred in a split second.

This unique film style is one that could be duplicated, but it is only affective if executed correctly. In this film's case, it was. I couldn't bring myself to look away from the screen, which allowed me to pick up on an important shot that literally only lasted a half second. That half second shot was the most important part of the film, in my opinion, and if I were looking away I would have missed it and been confused. I recommend this film if you ever get the chance to check it out, I don't think you will be disappointed.