A Mement In Time...

The suspense of Memento continues to grow as the movie moves forward (or backward).  The plot of the movie is quite complex, but the real beauty of the movie is the perspective from which the plot is told.  The camera is of course our portal into Leonard's world.  We see what Christopher Nolan intends for us to see and in the order he intends for us to see it .  It is really questionable thought as to whether this adds or takes away from the film.  The black and white shots that cut the "action" of the movie into pieces are a nice touch.  I also like how each scene "starts" with the "end" of the scene.  This keeps you interested because you are asking what events led Leonard to his current predicament.  For instance, when he is sitting on the bathroom toilet with a bottle of wine in his hands, the viewer is curious and thinks, "  Is he a drinker? He says he doesn't feel drunk.  But why else would he have a bottle of wine? And why in the bathroom of all places?  Who's house is this anyway?"  And that of course brings us to the other interesting observation that Lenny doesn't really care where he is when he wakes up.  He follows his instincts.  He wants to shower. He showers.  Doesn't seem to give it a second thought.  He doesn't even bother to look outside of the bathroom.  Both Lenny and the audience are kept in the dark most of the time.  Lenny doesn't seem to always be doing so much exploring of his own so we  have no choice but to go with it.  So in that respect I like the chronology of the film.
      But I am still not sure if I like the entire film being shown out of order.  It makes the viewer feel confused and ignorant like the main character and this may have been Nolan's goal.  But this confusion can become a bit much.  It really is very hard to remember what happened when.  Even in class yesterday we were having trouble reconstructing the order of events.  But perhaps that is exactly what Nolan was trying to accomplish.
     Apart from camera work, the plot of the movie continues to develop and give us some explanation.  There are still many questions left on answered though.  Why is there a pick up truck with bullets in it?  Was there really a second guy in the bathroom the night  that Lenny's wife was murdered?  Who is trying to use Lenny and who is trying to help him? Who is Lenny always talking to on the phone? etc etc....            Also Mr Bennett I dont think you gave the class enough credit for pinning Natalie as someone who is using Lenny.  We all thought she was rather suspicious and I personally stated that she was behind this whole mess. Now I understand I have not yet seen the ending and dont know many key things, but thus far it certainly appears that Natalie is really at the root of all of Lenny's problems.  But i guess that's the point.  You can't trust your senses.  And the suspense keeps building....