We all need memories to remind ourselves who we are. If a person keeps losing his memory every 15 minutes, his life has turned into a series of disconnected moments. Does this person really know who he is? Leonard Shelby experienced this situation in the film 'Memento.' He explained that he can't make new memories in the film. However, he had to search for the the murderer who killed his wife. In order to make himself remember all the clues he wrote notes and messages on his body and on paper. But are all these messages reliable? Is a person's memory reliable and what is it that makes a person?

"Memento" is trying to search for the answer to this question.

Message behind

Nolan was trying to bring out a message that we all need memories to remind ourselves about who we are: just like we need a mirror to remind us what we look like. Because the history of yourself makes you become who you are today., a person without memories such as Leonard has no clues about his personality, the thing he is doing etc. His messages and notes are entirely unreliable and merely make false memories. A person like him would only be able to make up his own truth. Some people want to forget their bad memories and believe they would better be distorted. However, the film is telling you that is not a good idea to do so, because we all learn from our own history and memories.

We need to try to treat our memories as an experience no matter whether they are good or bad.

Narrative style

The narrative style of the film is unlike any other thriller movie. The story was told in a lurching backward motion: Each scene jumps back in time, and ends where the previous one -- in narrative time, the next one -- began.

Before too long you get the hang of looking for causes that follow from effects. Thus it keeps the audience wondering why is this happening? For example, why would there be a scar on Leonard's face? This narrative style is special and keeps the interest of audiences all the time. However, this unique narrative style is very difficult to present, so the audience may easily get confused by that.

Fortunately, Nolan had presented it very well which could make the audience think they were in Leonard's head and investigating the case with him.

Black and White Scenes

Apart from using remarkable narrative approaches, the use of colour was also distinctive. Nolan presented the false memories of Leonard in Black And White, to create a sense that the audience is actually thinking inside his head. For example his false memories of Sammy Jankies: sadly, he could recall the memories of 'Sammy' but was unable of relate it to himself. Thus, the use of black and white makes the audience know that the director is trying to present something differently.

Overall, this is a fantastic film which is unlike the any other psychological thriller. The spectacular use of the narrative approach and colours to present a philosophical idea of 'do memories make a person?' makes an ordinary psychological thriller extraordinary.