Blows your mind, then asks you to put it back together.

Rating: 10/10 (6 June 2001)

Really, you need to see this movie. You've never seen anything like it.
This movie requires a hell of a lot of thought. Unlike normal movies which move forward, you don't have to remember every little bit of what happened before all the time. But here, since you see everything backward, you have to keep in your mind what's going to happen so you can make sense of things that *have* happened. At a point, I got worried, because I knew the end was near and I hoped it didn't have a bad ending to ruin a perfectly good movie. But oh, the end is great. By the end, you'll be throughly confused, or pleased if you think you've got it figured out. Don't see it alone; you're going to want people to talk about it with afterward. We think we've got it figured out. But not completely. I'd need to see it again in more detail, and it may even be helpful to view the movie *forwards*.
There is the plot at hand, and there is the pervasive meditation on the nature of memory. Memories change. What is real? Truth, lies, all blend into one.
Part of the movie does move forward, though, in scenes intercut between the reverse vignettes. It's brilliant, really, having Leonard telling his story to someone on the phone, conveniently telling us as well, so we are educated about his condition and what he's done about it.
Notably, the story is told backwards. Much has been made of the fact that a *Seinfeld* episode did it, and so did Harold Pinter's *Betrayal*, and I'm sure others as well, but here there is a very damn good reason for it. By watching the events in reverse, *we* are in Leonard's shoes. We feel the same disorientation, the same confusion. He can't remember what he's done, and we can't see the next few minutes of the reel. This leads to some absolutely hilarious jokes, as well as some cleverly ironic twists.
Teddy (Joe Pantaliano of *Matrix* fame) and Natalie (Carrie-Anne Moss, also of *Matrix* fame), apparently. There are very few characters in the film, but the few there are are very important.
*Memento* is about Leonard Shelby (played beautifully by Guy Pearce, of *L.A. Confidential* fame), a man who is trying to find the man that raped and murdered his wife. There's just one problem: trying to stop it, he took a blow to the head, and now he has a unique amnesia where he cannot for new memories. He can remember everything before the incident, but every fifteen minutes, his short-term memory is wiped clean. He must take pictures, leave himself notes, give himself tattoos. Whom can he trust?
You've heard the hype, I'm sure. And I'm just going to add to it, and tell you to get off your damn computer and go see this movie.
I saw *Memento*! And it was freaking awesome! Christopher Nolan is my new hero.