i watched
memento many moons ago, and i must say that after viewing it the first time, i was feeling rather pissed off and frustrated--mainly because the person i was watching it with (who had already seen it several times himself) wanted to test me by not telling me a single thing about the movie and in turn, see what sort of interpretations i could come up with on my own. the ass could have at least informed me that i needed to put my thinking cap on prior to watching it (note: for some reason, i'm usually in a lethargic state whenever i choose to watch movies
)
..anyway, i haven't had a chance to view it again, but these are some of the conclusions i came to after watching it; don't ask me how i arrived at them, because the movie is not fresh in my mind:
*i came to believe that teddy actually felt some sort of deep-rooted empathy towards leonard in terms of what "supposedly" happened to his wife, his incapacity to retain memories, and his "need" to have revenge against his wife's "supposed" killer. having said that, teddy is obviously a corrupt man at the same time. he uses leonard's predicament and his sympathy for leonard to both of their advantages: teddy more or less uses leonard as a "hit man" while at the same time, leonard is given something to live for--avenging his wife's killer. so in this sense, yes, teddy would have been telling the truth towards the end of the movie. there is one thing however that i think maybe teddy intentionally failed to expand on: he tells leonard that his wife's killer had already been caught...or something along those lines. in saying this, i beleive that perhaps teddy knows something more...and that is, that leonard is actually responsible for his own wife's death (my second theory). of course he doesn't let on that he is aware of this when appealing to leonard at the end of the movie.
*leonard was literally his own wife's "killer"--apparently the result of his inability to retain memories. his wife actually
survived that initial attack in their home that kept being alluded to. many people are led to believe that his wife died at that point. yet, there is one instance in the movie, where, for a brief moment, we see her eye opening while still wrapped with the shower curtain following the attack. it can be inferred that she survives that violent attack, but still, leonard is left with a memory related condition. throughout the movie, we see leonard piecing together a particular story concerning a guy (ironically afflicted with a similar memory condition as leonard) and his diabetic wife. the diabetic wife is at her wit's end (unable to receive compensation via the insurance company leonard works for) and doesn't quite know whether to believe that her husband actually has a valid memory condition or not; so she more or less risks her own life in order to find out the truth. seemingly unaware of what he is doing, the husband ends up injecting his wife with her medication numerous times, and as a result, she dies. well, in my opinion, this "insurance-related anecdote" is actually the story of leonard and his diabetic wife. at some point, leonard, as a result of the memory condition he sustained following the attack in their home, ends up overmedicating and killing his own wife. we discover leonard's wife has some sort of medical condition wherin she needs some sort of injection (within one of leonard's brief memories relating to himself and wife, the audience sees leonard and his wife laughing, followed closely by leonard helping to inject a shot for his wife). you must watch very closely for this scene--it is extremely brief.
....so there's my take on some aspects of the movie. again, i've only seen it once; perhaps i'll have another take on it when i go and watch it a couple more times.
...
)
