Just enjoy the movie!

Rating: 9/10 (12 December 2001)

"Memento" is not really one of the ten greatest films of all time, but that's hardly an insult. It's a very intelligent, stylish neo-noir film with a creative concept and solid execution. The concept is actually quite simple, but effective-- the backward narrative allows us to slowly uncover the mysterious beginning. And, much like the protagonist, we are never actually certain what is really going on. "Memento" isn't as complex and innovative as some would have you believe, but it certainly deserves its hype more than, say, "Being John Malkovich".
The brilliance of the film actually lies in how beautifully and thoroughly the narrative conveys the basic theme-- memory is subjective. We all make sense of our lives through little mementoes and fragments of memories, believing in whatever stories we have told ourselves to give meaning to those memories... stories which may be completely inaccurate. Lenny is just an extreme case of a condition that we all experience.
***Mild spoilers***
The ending of the film only furthers this notion. Some reviewers have complained about plot holes, and the uncertainty over whether the background story told by Teddy near the end is accurate. And yet this is precisely the point. All memories have gaps. All events in real life have plot holes to those who experience them-- we don't have access to a narrator providing explanatory voice-overs. And all of us center our lives around a set of questionable assumptions. Does it really matter if Lenny got the right guy... or if his wife was really murdered... or if Sammy really existed? Of course not. All that matters, and all that you ultimately have, are a few little crumbs of hard evidence and your own interpretation.

And that, ladies and gentlemen of the jury, is the way life works.