Memento

If it's playing within a hundred miles of you, go see it.

THAT good, huh? What`s it about? I haven`t heard of that one but then I don`t keep up on all of the movies that are coming out!

I really want to see it, but I don't think it's playing anywhere near here.

I'll step in here...

Memento is a mystery/suspense story about a man out to kill the man who raped and murdered his wife and who eluded the police.

The twist? Leonard (the hero's name), as a result of being hit over the head by the rapist, developed short-term memory loss, in which he is incapable of creating new memories; everything just fades after a few minutes. He can remember everything up to his wife's death, but he must remind himself using a system of Polaroids and permanent tattoos who his friends and enemies are.

To make it even more interesting, the movie is told backwards: meaning that the first scene is actually the last scene chronologically, and the second scene is the one leading up the first scene, and the third scene takes place before the second scene, etc. This creates the effect of Leonard's disorder, because while he forgets what happened a few minutes ago, the audience doesn't know what happened to begin with. This creates some really intriguing plot twists and developments.

All in all, a very good movie. A shame it opened only in limited release.

Thanks for the rundown, Faceless. Much obliged. It sounds most intriguing. Is it slated for a wider release in the near future? I think I will check that one out if it comes to our area. It sounds very interesting.

[afro-elf]

I have to say that it is one of my all time favorites.

Intelligent, original, and dark.

[gdl96]

Yeah, it was really good.

[fireworks19]

OHHHHH. SERIOUSLY, one my ALL TIME favorite movies!

[Dhagda Ioma]

I agree. It was rather incredible.

001020120

[luinilwen]

it was cool, but i had to watch it few times to get it... i'm not sure if i get it now it's been ages since i saw it... dang now i'm going to have to hire it!

[FrodoFriend]

Yeah, it took me a while to understand too. The ending was fantastic. So ambiguous. Can you imagine living like that? I was so upset whenever one of the characters tried to take advantage of Leonard, especially that woman! (forgot name!)

[Humming bird]

My poor thread got shut. It was repeated. How could I know? Anyway, here is my latter post.

Memento by Christopher Nolan is probably one of the best movies I have seen in the past couple of years. Lost of twists, suspense, and one whopping surprise.

And there's no question that this is a film that encourages repeat business: That is, its puzzles are so intriguing and so impenetrable at first viewing that filmgoers are almost forced to go back for a second look if they want to figure out just what the hell was going on. "Memento" is like "The Sixth Sense" and "The Usual Suspects" in that nearly every scene takes on a different meaning once you know where the film is going.

Or should that be "where the film has been"? Unlike "The Sixth Sense" and "The Usual Suspects" -- indeed, unlike almost every other celebrated "puzzle film" in cinematic history -- "Memento's" puzzle can't be undone with a simple declarative explanatory sentence. Its riddles are tangled up in a dizzying series of ways: by an elegant but brain-knotting structure; by an exceedingly unreliable narrator through part of the film; by a postmodern self-referentiality that, unlike most empty examples of the form, thoroughly underscores the film's sobering thematic meditations on memory, knowledge and grief; and by a number of red herrings and misleading clues that seem designed either to distract the audience or to hint at a deeper, second layer of puzzle at work -- or that may, on the other the other hand, simply suggest that, in some respects, the director bit off more than he could chew.

All of the notices about the movie have told us that the story is told in reverse order. We hear that Leonard, played by Guy Pearce ("L.A. Confidential"), kills the murderer of his wife in the film's first scene, and that the film then moves backward from that point, in roughly five-minute increments, to let us see how he tracked the guy down, ending with what is, chronologically, the story's beginning.

It turns out that this is a substantial oversimplification of the movie's structure -- and that's just one of the surprises that unfolds once you look at the film closely. Some have found the film daunting, and some critics panned it. They're entitled to their opinion, but many of the negative reviews make it plain that the critics didn't quite grasp what Nolan was doing. It's heartening, however, that most critics at the country's major papers understood that the film has immense thought behind it, both technically and thematically. Still, given the way the film business works, critics usually have only one chance to see the film and have to dash out a review before deadline, so even many of the positive reviews couldn't begin to chart the film's depths.

Yet, in Web communities, critics and film fans have discussed "Memento's" structure and meaning without letup. I thought I would take the time to get to the bottom of some of its mysteries. I'm going to attempt to peel away a few layers of this prickly artichoke of a movie.

What did you think of it?

[Khamûl]

I saw this movie this weekend. Whoa. It was very cool and I will most definitely have to watch it again.

[Janny]

The fact the movie was so good was because it hinged around a crucial and very powerful moment. However, while i appreciate this moment (and consider the movie my favourite) i don't really think i could watch it that many more times, because that discovery made in that moment is practially the enjoyment of the film.