Intriguing idea--but #26 on IMDb??!?!?!?!

Rating: 7/10 (7 December 2006)

Huh? Talk about an unreliable score for a film! Unfortunately, IMDb is very, very, very skewed by recent movies. So many older great films have very few reviews or have generally lower scores--not because they are worse than newer films, but because there is a bias against older films because SOME reviewers are teens or people who simply won't consider anything that was not made in the last decade or so. Likewise, there is often a strong bias only for Hollywood blockbusters, even though many foreign or "small" films deserve recognition but are ignored because people just refuse to try something outside their comfort zone. This is a real shame, as there is just so much more out there. While MEMENTO is a decent and very unconventional film (I sure respect them for trying something DIFFERENT), it isn't great when viewed in context.
Okay, so you may think I am just some crazy crank who is totally negative! Well, this might be true (the verdict is still out), but of the IMDb top 250, over 30% were made just in the last two decades. Also, films like THE WALLACE AND GROMIT movie, MAGNOLIA, FINDING NEVERLAND and V FOR VENDETTA make the top 250 and yet films like MARTY, THE CHILDREN ARE WATCHING US, SHOW PEOPLE, MY NEIGHBOR TOTORO, BANSHUN, THE CAINE MUTINY, CAPTAIN BLOOD, MY MOTHER'S CASTLE, CHARIOTS OF FIRE, DINNER AT EIGHT, DODSWORTH and ELMER GANTRY don't make this list (among others). It's sort of the like the expression "out of sight, out of mind"--if a film isn't recent or make a ton of dough at the box office, it's chances of making the list are very low indeed.
Okay, enough of my rant--now on to this movie. MEMENTO is a very strange movie in that the film starts at the very end and works its way backwards towards the beginning. This is an intriguing and clever idea. You know that the main character who was brain injured committed a murder, but because his injury makes it physically impossible for him to remember any events AFTER his injury, he tries to solve a mystery by leaving notes for himself and tattooing himself so he can eventually put all the pieces together. The problem is that after a while, the very stylish film becomes awfully tedious. Plus, the ending, to me, just wasn't very satisfying--it's an ending you will either love or hate. Leonard Maltin gave the film only 1 1/2 stars out of 4. I won't be THAT critical, but I just can't see how stylish film making and an odd plot result in this movie being elevated to near the top of the IMDb list of films!!
NOTE TO PARENTS--the "f-word" is used about 200 times in the film and there is some intense violence, so this film is rated R. I watched it with my 16 year-old, but you might want to think twice about letting the kids see this one.