Topic 2 Memento and Adaptation

 Julia Rodrigue 

10/9/20

COM 126 

Film’s have long used narrative structure to establish the plot and characters within a film. Characters must be created in a way that keeps in mind the narrative of the film. Character’s should be round enough to carry out the plot in an interesting and convincing way. The textbook states that almost every film created “Depends on two essential elements: a character pursuing a goal” p. 119. Most films use narrative structure in a very straightforward way. Narrative and character development within the films Memento and Adaptation are used in a way that challenges viewers. Both film’s use their character’s subjective reality to create an almost uncomfortable and challenging viewing experience.

Memento follows the character Lenny, in non chronological order from the “ending” of the film to the “beginning”. We first meet Lenny and understand his disability as he does. The film is told in this non chronological way so the audience only has as much information as Lenny. It becomes easy to sympathize as we are also lacking information, always questioning others motives. Simultaneously the film goes back and forth to film noir style sequences, that are in chronological order. As Lenny recounts in the first person the story of Sammy Jenkis. This allows for a mystery to arise and we slowly begin to question his story more and more. 

 Memento is interesting because of its narrative structure, it challenges the viewer on purpose. The textbook states “Memento...essentially challenges viewers to relearn how to align expectation and decipher narrative context.” p.135. The Sammy Jenkins story line illustrates this perfectly. Throughout the film we get snippets of Lenny telling the story of Sammy to an unknown person on the phone. Lenny tells this story as if he is a third person narrator. The audience experiences this as restricted narration, as we have to take what Lenny tells us as truth. I continuously questioned how much of the story is colored by Lenny’s limited understanding of situations due to his memory loss. 

During a split second of a flashback you can see Lenny’s face replaces Sammy’s in the mental hospital. For me this was an impactful moment in the film, I even rewound a few times to make sure I had seen correctly. This made me begin to question Lenny’s reliability as a narrator more than I already had. After this both timelines blend together. As the film noir scenes catch up with the non chronological plot. We learn at the climax of the film that Lenny is Sammy. He has been caught in a loop attempting to get revenge for over a year. Memento would not be a very interesting film without the reversed timeline. The reason it is so memorable is because we must experience the movie, the same way Lenny experiences life.

Charlie Kaufman’s film Adaptation also blends the lines between Charlie's fantasy screenplay, reality and even our own reality. As the movie’s first image is of Charlie himself wandering out of the set of The Big Malkovich. The meta nature of the film is established very early on, commenting on what makes a film good. A scene I found to sum up this movie is the juxtaposition of the world beginning with Charlie anxiously pitching his screenplay to Valerie. Kauffman is grappling with what makes a good movie. Is it small snippets of life, where not much really happens. Or is it as the seminar speakers say big dramatic moments. The audience is given a front row seat to Kauffman’s writing process. As we see for most of the film Charlie agonizing over how to make his movie about flowers. Similar to Memento both films use first person narration to show what their characters are thinking by using this non diegetic trick. Kauffman even comments multiple times that narration is lazy filmmaking. Many different characters keep re-stating this. However I would disagree with him on this, I think if used in the correct way voiceover gives depth to a character. I sympathized with Charlie as I hear from his own thoughts on how he feels about himself. For the last part of the film, the pace is rapidly replaced with scenes containing drugs, sex and a chase seqence. The rapid change is a result of Kauffman giving into what makes a Hollywood blockbuster work. Kauffman would have ended the film with never finding the flower, without lessons or loss. However he is convinced by his brother’s success that this is the way to end a movie. Adaptation left me feeling conflicted and confused at what was really happening. 

Both Memento and Adaptation, mess with the clean narrative structure and turn it on it’s head. In each film both main characters are complicated and their view of the world is directly reflective of the way in which both are filmed. I think both films are examples of how a film's plot and characters can be enhanced by one another.