Match Point Vs Memento

During the semester, the class lectures have briefly defined and covered the genres of films such as Classical, Modern, and Postmodern films. I will discuss and illustrate the comparison and contrast in plots, characters, ethical/moral issue, and conclusion between the film, Match Point and Memento. Both of films are directed by famous directors in the world. The Match Point is directed by Woody Allen in 2005; Memento is directed by Christopher Nolan. First of all, Match Point is the film which is categorizing into classical films. According to the class lecture, the classical film follows traditional plot lines. Match Point is a story of protagonist’s journey of life. A protagonist (Chris Wilton) is a former tennis pro; who is an ordinary guy wants to have better life after his retirement. After being Tom Hewett’s tennis instructor, as marrying with Tom’s sister,
he entered into Hewett’s family which leads a luxurious life. However, Chris had had an affair with Tom’s previous girlfriend, and even though Chris married, he still kept an affair with Nola and later she got pregnant. After he knew the Nola’s pregnancy, he tried to betray her. Consequently, this is a simple plot of the Match Point about the protagonist’s life journey to the ending. On the other hand, Memento is a film which is categorizing into the post-modern film.
According to the class lecture, the plot of postmodern film usually seems to be disjointed or fragmented which generates confusion in the film. Basically, Memento is also the movie follows the classic plot lines about protagonist’s life journey like Match Point; however, the storyline of Memento is disjointed due to film editing which makes a story in backward-order. The plot is about the journey to find the murderer of protagonist’s wife with his short-term memory system. He tried to overcome his short-term memory loss by putting certain important name or issues on the writing and tattoos on his body. By editing and composition of the film, the director organized the sequence of the film in back-ward order, and it gives audience confusion to understand the whole movie and gives us questions among the movie. In that sense, some story line is clearly mentioned in the sequences of film; however, there are still ambiguous parts or lines which are not fully explained and followed the general story
line. Furthermore, characters in the film usually possess stable and contain a certain stereotypes. As I mentioned, the family of Hewett represents an upper-class family and high social status in the society. The member of the Hewett family shows the spoiled and luxurious lifestyle and takes that life for granted. Also, the character of Nola represents a certain stereotypes of women. As an American actress, she acts an attractive and sexy personality who could attract males easily. On the other hand, the characters in Memento are definitely more complicated than characters in Match Point. Mostly those characters are not defined as bad or good which doesn’t not present the ethical or moral issues clearly. In other word, postmodern films usually present less clarity on the moral and ethical issues than classical films. The editing and composition of the film gives a different thinking of the characters scene by scene. For example, the main character, Leonard, was a poor guy at the first time when the film describes that he lost her wife by murdered, and most of people tried to take advantage of this disability of memory. Also, Teddy, who was under-covered cop, was suspected of murderer of Leonard’s wife. However, at the end of the movie, Teddy was one who helped him to find murder of his wife. Consequently, the characters in Memento have obscurity to be defined in certain or typical stereotypes. That is, it is one of the distinct classifications between classical film and postmodern film.