Leonard

Leonard is the protagonist, a man whose wife has

been raped and murdered in a traumatic incident.
He walked in on it happening and lost his memory
after hitting his head while trying to set her free.
Ever since, he has had short-term memory loss,
which prevents him from learning new information.
He has to use photographs and tattoos on his body
to remember what he is doing every day and that
he is searching for his wife's killer.
Leonard is smart and scrappy in spite of his
condition. He is determined and loyal to his wife's
memory, single-minded in his desire to reverse the
trauma he has suffered. In many ways, he is like a
protagonist of an old film noir—tortured by inner
demons, but brave and gritty nonetheless, looking
to survive however he can.
Teddy
Teddy is a dirty cop who is using Leonard's
condition for his own nefarious reasons. He pins
Leonard's wife's murder on guys that he himself
wants taken out, and Leonard follows through with
it, as he has no recollection of what he has already
done. In demeanor, Teddy is polite and clever, and
he has a villainous mastermind. But underneath his
friendly attitude is a malevolent and manipulative
mind.
Natalie
Natalie is a bartender who is dating a drug dealer,
Jimmy Grantz. She helps Leonard find the
information he needs in order to get his revenge on
the man who killed his wife, but she also messes
with him when she wants to, manipulating him to
keep herself safe from another drug dealer, Dodd.
She is sweet and vulnerable in moments, taking
care of Leonard, but heartless and cruel at others,
made ruthless by her hard-knock life.

Jimmy Grantz
Jimmy Grantz is a drug dealer that
Teddy wants dead. In order to kill him,
Teddy convinces Leonard that Jimmy is
his wife's killer, so Leonard kills him.

Memento: Setting The Context

Before I begin, let’s take a quick look at the layout of
Memento’s plot. One part of the story is in the
forward direction. This is in black-and-white. The
other part of the story is presented to us in the
reverse direction. These parts are in colour. The
climax of Memento is in the middle where the black-
and-white meets the colour.
Assume there are 9 scenes in the film as below:

 Scenes 1 to 4 are in black-and-white.

 Scenes 6 to 9 are in colour.
The film is laid out as follows:

 First comes Scene 9, followed by Scene 1.

 The next is Scene 8, followed by Scene 2.
 So on, so forth, and eventually, Scene 5 is the
climax of the film.

Why was Memento presented in

reverse?
Simple. The lead character is suffering from short-
term memory loss. By presenting Memento out-of-
sequence, the audience is also left as dazed and
confused as the lead character. The audience, too,
has no clue what happened just moments before.
This kind of non-linear film-execution has come to
be called Nolan-Time.

The first scene of Memento is backwards. A

photograph (from a Polaroid camera) fades to white.
A guy gains his dropped gun. A dead guy becomes
alive and screams NO backwards. This is the last
scene of the story.

While the awesomeness of Memento’s plot is this

innovative non-linear storytelling, I’m going to walk
through the plot linearly to keep things simple. Let’s
start from the top.

Tips for patients and

family members
 Keep important items such as keys or money always
in the same place and try to do things always in the
same order and the same manner.
 Write information down in big letters. Use sticky
notes.
 Keep a positive, upbeat tone Even if it's disturbing to
notice your loved one's cognitive decline, you should try to
remain outwardly optimistic when you're talking with him or
her. People with dementia might not be able to understand
everything you say or ask, but they certainly pick up on your
mood and your expression.
   Be patient It can be tempting to step in and provide words that your
loved one is struggling to find. It's OK to do that occasionally, but
don't do it too much. It could discourage your loved one from trying to
talk, and make them reliant on you to tell the story for them. But part
of memory care is exercising the brain. It's perfectly OK if they
struggle to find a word. Just keep eye contact and maintain an
encouraging expression and tone. Train yourself to remain
comfortable in the silence.


 Set alarms for simple things, e.g. when to take

something out of the oven
 Relatives should keep a visitors book so the amnesiac
can check who has been in
 As a close family member, try to keep your frustration
to a minimum when the person does not remember
even very important events, e.g. marriage, birthday
parties or even recent deaths of relatives