Backwards but brilliant... (Memento (DVD))

Member Name: Rumblefish

Product:	Memento (DVD)
Date:	29/10/00 (95 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Highly unusual. Brilliantly acted and written.

Disadvantages: May be too "different" for some.

Now where was I?

With its twisting reverse narrative, and its habit of repeatedly pulling you chair away when you're about to sit down, MEMENTO will remind many of THE USUAL SUSPECTS, and those annoyed by the cheeky conclusion to that film may find the denouement here unsatisfactory. But for cinema-goers in search of something very different and very provocative, you will find MEMENTO...well, unforgettable.

There is some dark humour in evidence as Leonard finds himself in situations without knowing why or how he got into them in the first place ("Okay, so now I'm chasing this guy..."), and the tragedy of Leonard's ailment is explored through the background story of Sammy.

Apart from the excellent performances by one and all - Pearce in particular is superb as the tortured but determined Leonard - MEMENTO works brilliantly because it keeps you off-balance from beginning to end (or should that be end to beginning?). As the film progresses, we are forced to constantly reassess the facts and the characters. Who can Leonard trust? With his handicap, can he even trust himself?

Secondly, MEMENTO is told backwards. The film opens with Leonard's search coming to an end. We are immediately confronted with how it all turned out, then the film goes on to explain why. So each scene ends with the moment where the previous scene began. It may sound jarring, but in fact this unusual technique works very smoothly, as we watch an apparently solved mystery unravel before our eyes.

Firstly, Leonard was injured when trying to defend his wife from her killer. The result is that he suffers from short-term memory loss, so that he knows exactly who he is and remembers everything up to his wife's death, but is unable to make any new memories. His memory now in fact lasts only fifteen minutes. This means that every time he meets Teddy, Natalie and others he is effectively doing so for the first time, allowing them to e
xploit and use him, like the motel owner he charges him for his room every time he sees him. Leonard combats this handicap by making copious notes, taking polaroid photographs of everyone and everything, and even having vital information and clues to the identity of his wife's killer tattooed on his body.

Guy Pearce (best known for LA CONFIDENTIAL, though still Mike Young from NEIGHBOURS to many of us) plays Leonard, a former insurance investigator in an obsessive search for the man who raped and murdered his wife. Along the way he is helped and hindered by Teddy (Joe Pantoliano - the hood in BOUND) and Natalie, played by Carrie-Anne Moss (THE MATRIX). Nothing much original in that you might say, but writer-director Christopher Nolan has added two remarkable twists.

That rare phenomenon - an original Hollywood film - is embodied by MEMENTO. A startling, expertly constructed thriller, it fearlessly defies film-making conventions with no little success.

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