| Product: |
Memento (DVD) |
| Date: |
17/03/08 (97 review reads) |
| Rating: |
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Advantages: Excellent plot, keeps viewer interested and gripped throughout, unique concept
Disadvantages: None
Memento is the story of a man with short term memory loss, who can remember his past up until the traumatic event where he and his wife are attacked but is unable to make any new memories. This means he can not remember anything, including what he is doing, for longer than several minutes at a time. The film is the story of this mans mission to avenge a man he knows only as John G who he has limited information about who we know from one of his many tattoos; raped and murdered his wife. It also deals with the way Leonard has to live in order to cope with his condition, which involves a lot of notes, tatoos and photographs to remind himself of things.
The main character, Leonard is played buy Guy Pearce and I feel he played the character perfectly. He really was great in the role, and as the viewer is viewing the film from Leonard's point of view we see and learn things as he does and I believe that Guy Pearce portrayed just how the character would have been feeling during in every moment of the film. There was never a point where I felt his acting was in anyway weak or flawed, an excellent and believable performance throughout.
Alongside Leonard we have two other main characters; Natalie, played by Carrie-Anne Moss of Matrix fame, and Teddy, played by Joe Pantoliano who is actually also in the Matrix. Both actors played their parts well and there really is nothing bad to be said about the acting here. It all worked well within the film and made the story enthralling and believable.
Analysis - did you like it not like it? Why? Things you could include:
Memento is one of my all time favourite films, which isn't something I say lightly. I find it hard to answer the "what is your favourite film?" question, but this is definitely up there. There are many reasons for this which I will go into somewhat (without spoiling anything) here.
First the film is, at least to me, very unique. I imagine there are some film buffs out there that will argue this point, but for me I had never seen anything else like it and never have since, so it is at the very least rare. The film is told in reverse, we the viewer see the final scene of the film first, and work our way back from their. The individual scenes run forward, but they are just placed in reverse order. So we see the final scene, then the scene before this, then the scene before that and so on, working our way back to the start of the film, which is of course actually the end of the film as we are watching it.
Each scene is relatively short as it represents the time Leonard can remember for before he has no recollection of what he is doing or what has just happened. The fact that the film works backwards puts us in the same position as Leonard and therefore lets us gain an insight into what it is like to be him. We know what has just happened, but we do not know what has just happened before this to lead to this point. It is a very clever concept and a brilliant way of keeping the viewer intrigued in almost the opposite way to usual. Usually we want to know how things are going to end, whereas with this film, we know how things end straight away, but as the story takes us back we gradually learn how we got to this point and why.
Obviously the concept is great and something different from the majority of films you will ever see which does obviously make it stand apart from many other films. It is however not the only reason to watch this film, and don't for one second think that it's merely a gimmick. The backwards story isn't a gimmick here, like I say it serves the purpose of putting us in Leonard's shoes and not knowing why whatever is happening is happening, although of course we have a benefit over Leonard in that we do find out.
The film isn't only great because of the timeline though, the actual story itself is great. It's exciting and interesting following Leonard on his quest for vengeance and regardless of the unique timeline of the film the story itself stands alone as a great story and would have been a good film even without this, the backwards element just adds to this and aids the story.
I am not particularly a film buff so I'm not sure how well I can comment on the directing and the editing but what I would say is with a story like this with the complex time line and also so much going on in the story it would have been easy for their to have been some goofs or plot holes yet with Memento even people who like to tear films apart struggle to find many. There really are none that are worth mentioning or that make the film any less brilliant and therefore the director and editor have obviously worked well to make sure that it all fits together perfectly without errors.
They also included some little hints to the story that most likely go un noticed first time round, they even went un noticed with me long after the first time round until I actually read about them but it's great that they are in there so that if you are watching multiple times it gives you that "ahh!" element as your mind can click together things that you wouldn't have previously been able to notice due to your own "short term memory" effect the film provides you with.
I really do love this film and it's not just one of those that are only good the first time you see it. I've watched this multiple times now and it's one that I know I will continue to watch repeatedly over the years without it getting any less good. Even once you know the whole plot it still is amazing to watch again and again.
Also during watching the film there is never a point where the story drags, it is constantly moving and constantly kept me interested. I was always on the edge of my seat, waiting to see what happened next and trying to figure out what had happened and why. Even on repeated viewings I still couldn't remember it all clearly and was still trying to work things out. It is confusing to a degree, but in a good way not in a way that leaves you unsatisfied. It keeps you thinking and trying to work out what has happened, but it is not to complicated to follow.
There is also a feature on the DVD that let's you watch the film in chronological order, although I am yet to watch it this way, it is nice that it is included on the disc though.
All in all this is a fantastic film that I love because of its great story that the actors pull off so well and because of the unique way it is told which is executed so perfectly.
Summary: One of my all time favourites!
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