It is difficult to define a film to one specific genre; often a film carries characteristics of several genres, and normally whichever genre the film conforms to most is the one it is labelled as. There are a few main genres that are very broad; examples include comedy, thriller, horror, etc.

The genre thriller is a very broad category, with a crime usually being at the center of the plot (Bordwell & Thompson, p322), which most likely the reason why Memento was classed as a thriller. The central storyline in the film is that Leonard’s wife has been murdered and he is after revenge. Memento conforms to its genre in many ways, one of these being that there are three main characters in the film: one being Leonard who is the hero after revenge; another is Lenny who despite perhaps not being honest, could be seen as someone trying to guide Leonard in the right direction; the third is called Natalie who is the manipulator. These roles are not all apparent until towards the end of the film, as there are many twists, which reveal what Lenny and Natalie are really like. The idea of three central characters is basic form of the crime thriller.

In Memento the main character has problems storing short-term memory. This is a key plot device and the film’s narrative structure works because of it. In the film, the photographs with words written on them are good indicators of this. Whilst being referential, they are also related to the main character’s motive.

”You scan your surroundings for salient aspects-a friend’s face, a familiar landmark, a sign of rain. The mind is never at rest. It is constantly seeking order and significance, testing the world for breaks in the habitual pattern.” (Bordwell & Thompson, p54).

Bordwell and Thompson’s view applies to Memento. The two main devices used to let the audience know where they are in the storyline are the photographs and the tattoos on Leonard’s body, both of which develop throughout the story.

Thrillers allow for a lot of experimentation in the writing and directing, as well as allowing actors to showcase their talents, with the narrative structure in Memento being altered a lot. Manipulating the way the audience perceives the story is a very effective method of giving an event more emphasis. Memento builds the death of a man at the beginning of the film and then follows the story of what happened beforehand to lead to this event. With Leonard’s obsession of revenge, the structure of the film helps emphasise the end of his journey by killing this man who he believes to be his wife’s killer.

The reason Memento is so highly regarded is because of the manipulation of the narrative structure. The film itself is about memory, and more specifically how Leonard’s short-term memory loss impedes his quest for revenge. This allows the freedom to tell the story in any order desired, as the main character cannot reveal what has happened earlier in time. The overall idea is a very clever one, and it shows that changing the narrative structure works well when there is a reason to do so.

There are four general reasons to edit the narrative when considering the motives to do so. These are referential, explicit, implicit, and symptomatic:
Referential meanings are normally linked to concrete items, such as historical references, or well known signs that can be manipulated upon. In Memento the photographs and tattoos can be seen as referential, providing a timeline for the story, which the viewers pick up upon. The tattoos are core to the narrative as they provide a definitive and regular update on when we are set in the story, the tattoos being numbered, emphasising the feel of a timeline. Whilst the tattoos and photographs are referential, they could still be manipulated and therefore brings in the question of authenticity. This question of authenticity keeps the viewer wondering whether the facts that they learn are indeed true for the entire length of the film and possibly even after.

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