Brandon Ricardo

Professor Sapphire

10/9/20

Topic 2

After watching both films Memento and Adaptation the narrative structure is both similar but yet completely different at the same time in my opinion. Memento was mostly set in 1st person with Leonard who has memory problems in the film which is a perfect use of first person keeping the film interesting and intense. In Adaptation the use of narration is mostly in 1st person with Charlie's story being focused more in the first part of the film and finishing with Donald’s his twin brother.

In both of these films both directors do an excellent job of conveying the right narrative structure to match with the plot of the film. The audience that watches Memento is in constant suspense and many twists and turns in Leonard’s story makes the film work especially after the mind blowing twist at the end that Leonard was the person who killed his wife. The audience was made to trust Leonard and after this reveal occured the trust the audience had in him completely shifted. In Adaptation the idea of the way a film is nowadays with drugs and sex is protrated in the beginning as Charlie is writing his script and refuses to include these things  but as the film goes on I notice how Donald influences him into making the movie like that.

It helps me a lot to compare new films I watch to movies I’m more familiar with and for me Memento reminds me of Knives Out. In Knives Out the audience believes for pretty much the whole film that the main character Marta accidentally poisons/kills Harlan but at the end we learn that she never poisons him at all she believes she did but Ransom Harlan’s grandson switched the medications so Marta gave Harlan his actual medicine and not the poison. I compare both of these movies because we believed Leonard was the good guy trying to find his wife's killer but we learn that he didn’t have to look far as it was him who killed her.  

Both Memento and Adaptation are very different from each other. The first big difference is that Memento is going backwards whereas Adaptation is going forward in time. I believe this makes a big difference in how an audience perceives both of these films. Another difference is how in Memento the Protagonist was also the villain whereas in Adaptation Charlie is always good.

They also are slightly similar because in both movies we experience heartbreak as Leonard's reveal in Memento and Donald’s death in Adaptation. We were made to believe that there will be a happy ending in the end but unfortunately it never was meant to happen. All of this isn’t possible in my opinion of being as effective as it is without the use of narrative structure and how each story was told to the audience. Each film's story worked for that film and was very effective in getting a reaction from people. I totally understand why we had to compare these two films because the complexity of these films make it so interesting to break down and learn from. In Memento the narrative focuses more on the story and plot but in Adaptation the narrative focuses on the character development. This is my biggest takeaway from both of these films and hearing a fellow classmate put it into words completely helped me complete my thoughts of the narrative of both of these films.