overrated? You Decide

Rating: Null/10 (8 January 2003)

Yes yes this movie has been a tad overrated. Good reason for this though - it has unusual elements to its edit. I wouldn't call it totally original (the fact that the scenes run from end to beginning in reverse chronological order) however it was an excellent choice of edit given the main characters 'disability' of not being able to remember what happened to him 15 minutes ago as it ensures the audience don't have a clue what happened either.
Personally I really enjoyed this movie as you DO need to keep a firm hold on what's happening, to be able to follow the plot. It's a movie well worth watching more than once to catch how all the story elements come together.
However a friend of mine watching it was bored to tears. He felt it was disjointed, half of it irrelevant, with a thin plot. He wanted to be entertained for an hour and a half and to sit back and enjoy a good movie, not have to constantly try to recall what he'd just seen and how one scene met another.
I felt the acting was good, the edit fantastic, the concept and idea a breath of fresh air, and the lack of flashy special effects refreshing given how many films overuse these at present.
However, the use of non-chronological sequences is a great idea, but if the movie cannot hold its own when you run the scenes in chronological order then it becomes nothing more than a gimmick.
Would Memento have been 'all that' if they had chosen to run it in from beginning to end rather than end to beginning? Would there have been any element of surprise? Could the film still be seen as being a thriller with a great plot? You decide ...