Blogpost on Leonard Shelby (Memento)

 

I think what really fuels my love for Nolan's 2000 masterpiece, 'Memento', is the psychological battle that our main character, Leonard, is suffering from, and how this shapes the film both structurally and aesthetically. Of course, Leanord is an unreliable narrator; whilst we learn that he has anterograde amnesia, the most crucial revelation is that he actively chooses to forget his past and the truth. Moreover, making definite decisions about who he is as a character is slightly oversimplistic - rather, we can learn around him through gaps, contradictions, and other characters' accounts. 

• Leonard Shelby 
  
  
  
• Almost all of what we see of Leonard's life is focused on his determination to get revenge on what he believes is the murderer of his wife. However, certain aspects provide insight to his true character, such as his Jaguar - clearly a slick, expensive car. It doesn't seem to fit with his claim to being an insurance inspector, yet he doesn't question it himself. It suggests a disconnect between who he thinks he is and who he really is - an example of the repeating theme of ambiguity in the film. When he goes out to eat, he either eats simple food, or not at all. Nolan gives us an idea that Leonard's character has a desire for certainty in a confusing world, and that he is completely obsessed by his 'mission', rather than just living. Leonard's hotel room is another symbol of how his world is functional, not personal, and the fact that he takes multiple rooms at the same hotel shows how easy it is for him to be manipulated.
• For someone that forgets what they know every 15 minutes, it is slightly difficult to assume seperate characteristics about Leonard. Rather than having clear examples that indicate his characteristics, Leonard's personality is completely shaped by his memory, and on top of that, his obsession with it. Certain things we could assume, such as the number of hours at night that he sleeps, what his morning routine looks like, and whether or not he watches movies or listens to music. Instead, Nolan touches upon the unreliability of memory, and on a practical level, Shelby's memory is unreliable because it literally resets every 15 minutes. On a deeper level, it's unreliable because it reflects desire rather than truth - Leonard's obsession twists his perspective of himself and the world, as he portrays himself the way he wants to be portrayed.