I really, really tried......

Rating: Null/10 (26 June 2001)

I went to see Memento in a small theatre with about four other people in the whole place. We all sat quietly and paid attention. After the first 15 minutes, I thought that I had gotten the hang (sort of like when I drive in England) of it's overlapping reverse order story segments, and figured that if I could just maintain the same level of concentration, I would be able to accurately reconstruct the whole play of event in my head in the correct order, and thereby know if the opening scene was the proper outcome. I was doing well until the last 15 minutes, when it seemed to me that the two main characters are simply out-improvising/lying & out-doubting/forgetting (respectively) each other, with no more backup information given to help the viewer decide what's what. So, I left the theatre not knowing if the 'hero' had in fact done the right thing in the first scene.
However, I thought about this and NOW I wonder if that issue really mattered. Perhaps the whole point was to place the viewer in the hero's shoes (or, mind) so thoroughly that the viewer ultimately suffers the same dilemma. I simply might be unable to keep enough of the facts clear in my head for long enough to be able to separate them from the falsehoods seeded by those who wished to manipulate the hero (the same experience he would be having). If that was the film maker's intention, then this has to be one of the best movies for thinking viewers to be made in many years. If the makers intended that the viewer leave the experience knowing if the hero sorted things out correctly, then either they or I failed. But I really, really tried my best........