Overrated, but still Good.

Rating: 1/10 (16 May 2001)

All in all, this was a good movie. It used TWO gimmicks that have already been used. The first: Starting at the end of a story to find out what happened in the beginning, was used in a Seinfeld episode (and much more effectively may I add). The second: The hero's inability to create new memories, due to short term memory loss, which was used by Dana Carvey in Clean Slate. Having said that, I think, like several movies which have had a gimmick to their story or format, that Nolan took the easy way out at the end, knowing people would overlook it due to it's gimmick. Like the Goofs section pointed out, Leonard wouldn't be able to remember he had the condition of memory loss. Even in Clean Slate, the story made a point to remind the main character he had this "condition" every time he woke up. And that wasn't written nearly as good as this. An obvious oversight by the writer/director. Also (I think another user comment mentioned this and I'm surprised more people haven't), Leonard has tatoos on his body BEFORE his wife dies. Including the one that tells him his wife is dead! I dunno if this was intended, but if it was, it goes unexplained.
Ever since the Usual Suspects waxed The Third Man, filmmakers have had this thing with hiding one's "identity". Well, honestly, for me the only time I was fooled was in the Usual Suspects. I saw it coming in Fight Club and The Sixth Sense (though in this film it didn't ruin a thing for me), and I saw it coming in Memento. I gotta say, the two "bad" or "not as good versions" of these films are Fight Club and Memento, while the better ones are the Usual Suspects and Sixth Sense, and here's why:
The Usual Suspects and the Sixth Sense gave a CONCRETE, CUT AND DRY answer at the end. An answer that allows the audience to say "Ohh, well THAT explains EVERYTHING."
In Fight Club and Memento, while their stories were every bit as riveting as the former two, the payoff wasn't at big at the end. They gave kinda cheap answers that leave viewers asking "What about this? What about that? And what about that other time?" which in fact are subsequently answered by the characters one by one, but some of them are kinda half-assed, dubious, and just plain too easy that anyone coulda thought of them as explanations. Ultimately this leaves some viewers disappointed, often saying "THAT was it? I coulda came up with that!" (Though in Fight Club, this could've been amended had they ended the film the same way they end the novel).
Note to filmmakers: When you have a gimmick, it becomes a RULE for that screenplay. OBEY IT! At anytime should you so much as BEND it, IT becomes another time the audience will say, "Well how do you explain THAT!?". If you don't always have the answers, THINK ABOUT IT. Don't just settle for the easy ones, compromising and detracting from what could be an otherwise great script. E.g. The Sixth Sense. Gimmick: Bruce is DEAD. He can't talk or touch ANYONE except the boy. At no time (until the closing and closure of the film) did Shyalaman break that rule. Hence: A MASTERPIECE!
As for this film, I thought it was VERY well written and conceived until the end when all is revealed. The Revelation as it turns out, is disappointing. I would give it an 8 out of 10. HOWEVER, it's ranked #14 of all-time on this database. I don't think it's anywhere near being one of the top 50 of all time. So seeing that people have rated it so high, I'm giving it a 1 to compensate for people's lack of good judgement.