Narrative Structure in Memento and Adaption

 Dan Lavigne

COM126.01

Professor Saphire

8 October 2020

Narrative Structure in Memento and Adaption

Both the films Memento and Adaption rely on the narrative structure to craft character and the story that is conveyed in the film. This is done in a variety of ways, and both films depend on several key ingredients within the structure to amplify the resonance and meaning generated through the characters. Stylistic choices aside, both directors were mindful of subverting the audience's expectations of conventional forms of storytelling to bring forth a twisted, meta, and complex narrative structure. Overall, both films possess a unique alteration to the typical Hollywood formula, which creates everlasting characters, unique stories, and commentary on a variety of themes. 

Adaptation and Memento both use similar tactics to present character differently and drive the story forward. Both films use a first person narration to draw the viewer in. In the case of Memento, Leonard is the first person narrator. This was an effective choice, as all the twists and turns Leonard experiences in the film is directly conveyed to the audience. It’s as if the audience is subjected to a tunneled, yet fractured perspective of memory distortion. In this way, Christopher Nolan uses Leonard as an avatar to convey the story's complex plot. Likewise, in Adaption, the characters all experience humanistic stories beset with difficulty and flaws. Since the audience is allowed into these characters' lives (Orleans with emptiness, Charlie with his loveless life, and Donald’s naivety), Spike Jonze weaves in elements of metafiction to comment on the nature of writing. This choice delivers diegetic information (the character’s feelings) to comment on non diegetic information (human nature and art). This is comparable to Leonard (memory loss) and our perception of how things carry out (human’s relationship with the past and future). Both films take liberties in dramatizing this relationship by masking its meaning through the character's feelings.

Conversely, Adaptation focuses its plot duration on Charlie in the first half, and Donald in the second. This unexpected shift in narrative structure does deliver significance to the character, but also contributes to the metafiction genre that film encompasses. Memento is a deviation from this. The narrative structure is all over the place. The inclusion of other characters anchors the plot, and provides context to Lenard’s troubles with memory. The audience can understand the plot ahead of Leonard. This is powerful since the film deals with time. Another difference these two films have is the genres they seem to take inspiration from. Memento is very clearly a film noir. In Mark Cousins documentary, he described noir as being a style of film that uses dark shadows, character archetypes (cynical hero, femme fatale, etc.), and usually involves crime of some sorts. Adaption draws from neorealism in some ways, at least in the first half. Again, in Cousin’s documentary he describes this style as being realistic, set in poorer locations, and with non-professional actors. It’s almost as if Charlie’s character is a product of this style. Both films differ in their approach to narrative structure, which affects the characters and stories greatly.

All in all, both of these films rely heavily on their narrative structure in order to make dynamic characters which construct powerful stories. Adaption uses the recreation of reality to comment on the nature of writing and filmmaking. Memento brings forth a forgetful character to entrance the viewer into a plot of twist and turns. Both these films have a unique structure, and because of this they are set apart from the usual constructs of movies. Overall, this structure makes for an organic story and fresh characters, which convey a spectrum of emotions relatable to the audience.