A Truly Subversive Movie

Rating: 8/10 (22 September 2003)

Memento is a very interesting film. The story is actually nothing special, save for the device of the lead character's memory condition providing a good reason for the mystery in a mystery story to come at the beginning of a film rather than the end. The director does an excellent job of stringing together a story backwards through time.
There are no great performances in this film; the acting is adequate. I loved it in the end though, but probably for an unusual reason.
This film plays, in the end, on the viewer's own short-term memory. Most people don't pay all that much attention to a movie. We're all used to lots of action. Our minds wrap around the big things in a film. We've been conditioned to remember the sex, violence, explosions -- things that have big impacts on the consciousness.
This film has almost none of that at all, however. The story is held together by little details. If one can hold onto the memories of the details long enough, then one can also figure out the "end" of the story about halfway through the film. If one cannot, then one has actually become Leonard, the lead actor... lost in disjointed time that moves in fits and starts, like constantly awakening from dreams.
I enjoyed this movie (and I did enjoy it a great deal) because it is the living embodiment of "art imitates life." The audience is Leonard, the director is Teddy, and the film itself is, when all is said and done, a depiction of how most of us actually experience life, and certainly how we experience the film itself.
Ask yourself what you remember of the big, loud films that get the big box office every time -- The Matrix, X-Men, any of the Star Wars films. What details do you remember? Do you remember any of them? Or do you remember those big, bright, loud moments... and string together your own narrative to bridge the gaps between them?