A brilliant, unique film

Rating: 10/10 (28 December 2001)

I won't go on about how gripping this film is, and what a unique narrative style it has- I'll just add that since I've seen it, I know that waiting to see what happens in the end is not the most interesting thing; it can be much more exciting finding out what actually happened in the beginning. I just want to point out to all those who say the plot leaves unresolved questions: Go and watch it again. Everything is resolved, in a completely unexpected way, so unexpected that some people, obviously, failed to understand it.

******** SPOILERS ***** ***ONLY FOR THOSE WHO HAVE SEEN THE FILM****

Ever heard of false memories? Even Lenny in the film points out that memories can't always be relied on. That's why there can be 2 different guys in the bathroom- because it's Lenny's memories, and they can change, if Lenny gets it into his head that it was a certain person- e.g. Teddy. The story of Sammy Jenkins, which was in black and white, is NOT TRUE. Didn't you get it? NOBODY MURDERED LENNY'S WIFE. A guy who broke into the house and raped her and struck Lenny to the ground, which caused his memory defect, was probably really already dead as Teddy said. Of course, you might choose to believe that Teddy was lying that time, too (as he does often, anyway), but I think it was true (and why would Teddy lie about it, since he had nothing to gain by this?) - since we see a picture of Lenny lying in bed with his wife, with I'VE DONE IT tattooed on his chest: SHE WAS STILL ALIVE AFTER HE LOST HIS ABILITY TO REMEMBER, and he had killed the guy; but he was only shortly happy because of his revenge (which the picture Teddy took showed) and then he simply forgot. The story of Sammy is so important because IT IS ACTUALLY THE TRUE STORY OF LENNY AND HIS WIFE. She died of too many insulin shots as he described, but he didn't want to remember it. Haven't you ever heard that people repress some memories, that they stay in the subconsciousness, but pop up in an unexpected way? He preferred to believe there was still a bad guy somewhere who was responsible for everything- and looking for him in order to kill him would give his life a meaning. That's what the ending is about. So when Teddy told him the truth (as I believe), Lenny decided to make Teddy his bad guy. That's why he copied his license plate number and had it tattooed, and wrote "Don't believe his lies". Why not? After all, he did lie to him and used him to kill Jimmy. Natalie lied and used him, too, to get rid of Dodd (who would otherwise threaten her or maybe kill her - obviously he was some guy involved in the drug dealing business with Jimmy). But it seems she was afterwards honestly trying to help him (and was interested in him in other ways, but what's the point when he can't even remember her). I think both Teddy and Natalie are neither good not bad, they seem to genuinely like him, but they also both used him to solve their problems. BTW, I first thought when Natalie gave Lenny the info, that she was maybe setting Teddy up (because she knew he had something to do with Jimmy's death), but no, she hadn't even made the connection, and she told Lenny the truth that time and did help him find his guy- the guy that Lenny decided to pursue. So the lie that Teddy was guilty for Lenny's wife's death is the lie that Lenny had made up.
The only question that is left unanswered is: What is Lenny going to do after he's killed Teddy? Start looking for another 'John G.'? Probably.