Chris and Neale's Film Explanation: Memento (2000)

We had already seen Leonard being used by Natalie to accomplish her own ends (i.e., the revenge killing of Teddy for what Natalie believed to be Teddy's murder of her boyfriend Jimmy ), but we soon find out that other people had been using Leonard as well. Teddy has been using Leonard for some time. At the end of the movie, there were only a couple of things that I was pretty sure of. First, Jimmy was not the James G that Leonard was really looking for. Second, Teddy was not the James G that Leonard was really looking for. Possibly a third, the flashbacks are not believeable as they are from Leonard and he has brain damage. Other possible conclusions, Teddy gave Leonard the police report (w/ missing pages) to help maintain the James G. story/quest.

Leonard is a former insurance investigator. Leonard actually killed his wife with an insulin overdose, was judged incompentent, sentenced to a mental factility, and invented the story Sammy Jankis (and James G) as a fantasy to escape his guilt/grief. Leonard was an escaped mental patient being used by lowlifes to accomplish their plans (be it revenge or money).

However, if this is true then why doesn't Leonard remember his wife had diabetes? Yet as Leonard reminds us, "Memory's unreliable ... Memory's not perfect. It's not even that good. Ask the police; eyewitness testimony is unreliable ... Memory can change the shape of a room or the color of a car. It's an interpretation, not a record. Memories can be changed or distorted, and they're irrelevant if you have the facts."

Memento Links:

Andy Klien's Salon Explanation
Memento on IMDB
Memento

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Last Updated May 27th, 2002.