Post 1: Memento

That was an interesting film we had yesterday. I must admit it was rather confusing but not to the extent that one zoned out of it. So yeah, you could say it was immersive. And if you couldn’t get the plot, you could always cheat and get it from the following websites:

http://www.themoviespoiler.com/Spoilers/memento.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memento_(film)

So presented here are some of my thoughts about the movie in the perspective of someone taking a module on Narrative & Play in Interactive Media.

Firstly the movie has 2 separate tracks. The colour track and the B/W track. The colour track is told backwards and the B&W track is in chronological order. Although the story is told via the medium of film, I believe that label doesn't do it justice. Somehow the film seems to be more of a murder mystery comic book where you move from one picture to another and imagine what happened in between the events depicted in those two pictures. There is plenty of suggestion going on in the movie. The movie has not told us what to believe; if Sammy Jankis was real, if Leonard killed his wife, or if Teddy was really a cop.

Unlike movies in which there is a limited choice when it comes to interactivity, this film really opens up the boundaries. Opens up but doesn’t get rid of. There is still the framework of Leonard’s mental illness, the death of his wife and the setting. However the viewer is given free rein to “play” within the boundaries set by the movie. We may have seen such things in MMORPG games such as World of Warcraft, board games such as Dungeons & Dragons and RPG games such as Final Fantasy but it is refreshing to see it in a medium such as film which is considered to be really passive entertainment.