***Spoilers!!!*** Memento Raises More Questions Than It Answers

Rating: 8/10 (27 July 2005)

I liked this movie in that it starts off at the end and goes backward. The main character, Leonard Shelby, cannot form new memories and experiences because they are forgotten in a few minutes. Yet he wants revenge for the death of his wife and has gotten the message tattooed to his chest, so it becomes his prime directive whenever he wakes up or forgets what he's going to do.
The color scenes in this movie tell the story of Leonard in reverse chronological order. Interspersed within the film are black and white scenes which tell the story of Leonard, a man named Sammy Jankis, and present the mystery of who Lenny is talking to on the phone in chronological order.
This is done brilliantly by director Christopher Nolan and his crew in order to confuse and disorient his audience by only giving bits and pieces of the story until they can piece the whole story together. It's an engrossing story as we are put in the shoes of Leonard Shelby to empathize with his memory problem.
The movie has a smart premise and execution, but questions pop up that cannot be readily answered. There are plot holes and goofs in the movie, both deliberate (likely put in to show that Leonard's memory is faulty) and not, which tear down the movie somewhat for me. The story and Leonard Shelby's condition does not hold up under scrutiny.
The biggest plot hole is Leonard is able to remember that he has a short-term memory problem. Apparently, he has conditioned himself to look at his "remember Sammy Jankis" tattoo on his hand and this brings the long-term memory back of his condition. Jankis was a con man who tried to extort money from Leonard's insurance company with a short-term memory loss scam which Leonard exposed.
(EDIT: I'll concede this point. The movie does explain how Leonard is able to do this. It just wasn't obvious to me when I watched the movie the first time.)
Another problem I had was why didn't Teddy just break into the trunk of Leonard's car or trick Leonard, take the money and run? He had several opportunities to do it and is sitting inside the car when Leonard's not there in one scene. The car even has its window missing.
Next, there are minor goofs or mistakes in the story. Sharp eyed viewers have spotted this. Leonard says that he has no short-term memory and cannot remember anything after the accident to Burt. Yet he can remember his wife dying and the actual attack where he loses his memory. Also, he called him Burt in one scene and there was no way he could have known his name. There is fact 6. Leonard couldn't have known which fact number to put down for the license plate when he wrote it. These aren't as serious, but they can add up and spoil a movie.
Finally, the key message in this movie is memory is not always reliable and we are shown evidence of this -- the license plate having an 'I' and then it changes to a '1' and even the tattoo is wrong as it has a '1', the picture of Jimmy changing from clean shaved to mustache, the "I've done it" tattoo, etc. These could be mistakes, too, but I think they are deliberate in order to show Leonard's memory is not reliable.
To enjoy this movie, one has to accept the plot holes and goofs in the movie. I had to discuss this movie with friends after the first viewing and then watched it twice on DVD to get all the nuances.
The movie does succeed in explaining the complex story line. It's presented in an interesting manner with a bit more information told to us each time as the movie moves both backward and forward in time. Guy Pearce, Carrie-Ann Moss and Joe Pantoliano do an excellent job of convincing us of Leonard's condition and relationships and becoming sympathetic to it. It's the plot holes and actual goofs in the story which take it down for me.
(EDIT: The movie is a puzzle for the viewer to figure out as to what happened and why. Director Christopher Nolan explains that the answer is within the movie. His answer is 1) He's misdirecting us saying Leonard as having anterograde amnesia or And. He only THINKS he has it. In other words, it's a serious PSYCHOLOGICAL disorder. The guy has let his wanting revenge for his wife's death turn him into a sociopath and killer. He uses the And to fulfill this need. When he actually does complete his task, he makes up LIES in order to put his world back in order again. Thus, he continues to believe he has And and continues to hunt for his wife's killer. It's a puzzle that can never be solved.
After figuring out Nolan's answer or "trick" to this movie, I gave it a higher rating from 7.5 to 8.5. It makes for a more satisfactory experience. How sick is Lenny when he thinks his wife is dead, so he ends up killing his wife in real time because she keeps wanting insulin injections. His psychological disorder made him believe in his memory loss so much that he could not snap out of it. This allows him to continue getting revenge and killing as the riddle he has tattooed on himself can never be solved when he can conveniently forget it in his own mind. Still, the movie is left open-ended and the viewer is left to figure it out for themselves. There have been an alternative theory created to explain it. Perhaps the truth about Memento can be found in a line from the movie -- "So you lie to yourself to be happy. Nothing wrong with that - we all do. Who cares if there's a few little things you'd rather not remember?")