Memory's Unreliable

There is so much I could say about this movie, it is difficult to focus my thoughts.  The plot, the story, the characters, the mystery... where to begin? And end?

Well, thanks to the internet, I know how to narrow my focus.  I probably never would have noticed some of this stuff if it weren't for the internet.  Gotta love it.  Most of this stuff I got from christophernolan.net 

So, we all watched the movie Memento.  We all remember what happens, at least for the most part, right? This was I think my fourth time watching it.  I finally got everything sorted out straight, the order of all the events right in my mind, and I was feeling pretty good about myself and my memory.  I thought I finally got most of the stuff figured out, except for a couple of those big mysteries that I doubt will ever be answered concretely.

But then, I ran into some crazy things that blew my mind.  They totally shattered my faith in my own memory and the reliability of said memory.  And knowing this movie and what this movie is all about, I seriously doubt that these things were simply continuity errors.

Consider this quote from Lenny: "Memory's not perfect, it's not even that good. Ask the police. Eyewitness testimony is unreliable. The cops don't catch a killer by sitting around remembering stuff. They collect facts... They make notes and they draw conclusions. Facts, not memories. That's how you investigate. I know, it's what I used to do. Look, memory can change the shape of a room, it can change the color of a car. And memories can be distorted. They're just an interpretation, they're not a record. And they're irrelevant if you have the facts."

So we talked about one thing already in class, which I had just noticed for the first time this viewing; that is, the quick change from Sammy in the hospital to Lenny.  While that is interesting, and a point of major contention for "Is Lenny really Sammy?", it is not what I want to focus on.

Here are the images that I really want to focus on.

This is the coaster on which Lenny finds the note from Natalie.  Note the two completely different styles of handwriting, supposedly on the same exact coaster, just at different times.

License plate when Lenny writes it down

License plate after he gets the tattoo

The same picture, but he has no beard in one.  Odd, huh?

There are probably several other things, knowing this movie.  All this goes to show that our memory is just as unreliable as Lenny's.  I think the main thing to think about in light of this, is this: maybe all these mysteries will never be resolved, because they aren't meant to be.