Review: Memento (2001)

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Memento

Rating

Director

Christopher Nolan

Screenplay

Christopher Nolan (Short Story: Jonathan Nolan)

Length

1h 53m

Starring

Guy Pearce, Carrie-Anne Moss, Joe Pantoliano, Mark Boone Junior, Russ Fega, Jorja Fox, Stephen Tobolowsky, Thomas Lennon, Callum Keith Rennie, Kimberly Campbell, Marianne Muellerleile, Larry Holden

MPAA Rating

Review

Have you ever watched a film starting with the conclusion and working your way back through all of the action arcs to the opening credits? It kind of ruined the suspense, didn’t it? “Memento” is a film that you don’t have to watch from end to beginning, it does it by itself.

Christopher Nolan’s revolutionary “Memento” takes an unusual concept and turns it into a fabulous examination of how a story’s end could be less interesting than its beginning. “Memento” begins at its end with Leonard (Guy Pearce) standing over a dead body, not remembering what got him there. Leonard suffers from a short-term memory disorder that forces him to forget everything outside of a few minutes of memory and the history prior to his disorder, thought to have begun around the traumatic death of his wife.

To make sure he remembers, he carries a Polaroid camera to take pictures of people he meets and writes messages on their backs to make sure he keeps his acquaintances accurate. Additionally, the most important things he needs to remember he gets tattooed all over his body. One scene shows him reading the notes written all over his chest, arms and legs in the mirror.

There are two individuals with whom Pearce shares most of his screen time. Natalie (Carrie-Anne Moss) is an unusual woman with many secrets. She seems to be Leonard’s romantic interest, but he can’t remember her or how much he knows about her. Teddy (Joe Pantoliano), on the other hand, is seemingly transparent. For some reason, as the film later explains, Leonard has noted not to trust anything Teddy says.

What could have turned out to be another “Pulp Fiction” clone, writer-director Nolan has turned into a truly amazing film. The film’s story starts at the end and slowly works its way back to the beginning, changing the audience’s perception every step of the way. Just when you think you know what the solution is, some little clue that happened chronologically prior to the events you’ve seen interrupts your thoughts and forces you to begin again.

The film wouldn’t be anything without its cast. Pearce is outstanding as the memory-deprived ingenue who uses his own police background to help solve his own caper. Unfortunately, he relies too much on notes that can be easily erased, changed or lost. Pantoliano does no more than he is usually capable of creating a character the begs to be disliked, but has enough benefits to confuse the audience if necessary. Moss follows up her successful turn in “The Matrix” with a terrific performance as the quiet, manipulative Natalie.

Editor Dody Dorn cuts the potentially unwieldy premise into a sequential, cohesive film that never loses its audience, a necessity of any motion picture. Her style keeps the film on track where many other editors might have gotten lost.

“Memento” is certainly a memorable film, even if its lead character can’t remember any part of it. Audiences will easily find something to enjoy about the film as its surprise twist gives it an added jolt before a truly wonderful conclusion.