Images to be Remembered

Rating: 10/10 (30 July 2004)

How Can I Heal If I Can't Feel Time?
MEMENTO Director: Christopher Nolan Year: 2000 Starring: Guy Pearce, Joe Pantoliano, Carrie Ann Moss
"Once is right for this movie. Confusion is the state we are intended to be in." - Roger Ebert
I looked over our top 100 list and saw my favorite movie so I thought it would be perfect to make my own review. Memento didn't have the clout movies like the Passion did when it came out, although it didn't do bad at box offices it wasn't played everywhere thereby not many people heard of it. My story with Memento began with an episode of "Cribs" where a celebrity recommended it. Then a few years later IMDb had it #14 on it's greatest list. I had to see it after reading about it.
Memento is a thriller defined. Something Hitchcock or Kubrick would probably praise. The plot in simplicity isn't large. A man with brain damage trying to avenge his wife's killer/rapist. But Nolan defeats this slight flaw by complicating it without changing what happens, but when it happens. We open with a Polaroid being held of a dead man, shot. Slowly the polaroid undevelopes and then is returned into the camera, your rewind button is not busted. We then witness the reverse murder of a mysterious man. Then CUT, we go to a B&W scene of a man explaining his condition, setting the basis for his problem. then CUT, to a color scene, right before the murder, showing how it was led to, then after it happens again in forward, cut to another B&W scene, this is the pattern of the movie.
The movie follows the plot of Leonard Shelby, dubbed "the ultimate protagonist" by some editorials. Lenny is a man who witnessed his wife rapped and murder, he kills the man, and is hit by another which renders him handicapped. Leonard cannot remember things for more then 15-30 minutes. He tattoos important facts on him about the killer, etc. and carries polaroids to remember places/people. The story starts with the end and climaxes with the first thing that happened [realistically].
Nolan constructed it greatly with the use of BW scenes and color. And how he meets these scenes [BW ones take place before the color ones]. There are many interpretations, especially people who like to get mental. Unlike Ebert, I think there should be multiple viewings because it makes the movie greater and you see the new things you missed. Nolan means for us to identify with the main character, by showing us his story through HIS perspective. Confusion. We start with the end with ignorance as we learn more of each character, their different intentions and even then they could be reversed if you pay attention but I will not spoil it.
In my opinion Nolan made a masterpiece and it is at least within the top 10 or 15 greatest ever. The parts are not over or underacted. Hell, I even hear that Memento is shown in Psychology courses as a character study. Nolan tested directed in Following and perfected it in Memento.
10/10 #1 Favorites