Brilliant debut feature from Christopher Nolan

Rating: 10/10 (10 October 2014)

Memento is of course famous for being a film whose narration is told in reverse. It's divided into several segments that go back progressively further in time; each is separated by black and white sequences told in the correct order. Eventually both dovetail together in a sequence at the end that reveals crucial details that inform the whole story. This unique structure is brilliant. It's far from a gimmick though, as it is an extremely effective way of putting the audience in the lead character Leonard's shoes. The reason for this is that he is a man with a rare short-term memory loss disease so he, like us in the audience, has no idea of what has happened just a short time before. He has to take Polaroids of important objects, write notes to himself and even apply tattoos in order to proceed through life with any purpose. The last thing he remembers is the brutal murder of his wife - in which he was also assaulted, leading to his condition – and it's an event he lives to get vengeance for.
The reverse order structure and memory problem of Leonard creates a very interesting and unusual tension. The film's plot is structured ingeniously so that events unfold in this reverse chronology in such a way that maximises the twists and turns of the story-line. One of the beauties of this type of narrative is that, like the main character, we also have to depend on his notes and so we never really know if friends really are friends and how long he has actually known anybody. It's a disorientating effect and the reverse chronology perfectly captures the confusion of it. Leonard is, therefore, a perfect example of one of the staples of literature – the unreliable narrator. Except in this case, what we see is fact, it's just that we interpret it via Leonard's self-made clues and we increasingly discover how flaky they are as the story progresses further into the past. The effect of the memory condition is often used for wildly differing ends; sometimes it's used comically, like where Leonard forgets if he is running away from or chasing after a mystery man or where he discovers by chance that he has been booked into two rooms in the motel he lives, while at other times it is used for intense drama, as in the powerful scene where Natalie abuses Leonard, which is a brilliant sequence that hits the audience hard and really illustrates the impossibility of Leonards predicament.
The cast helps a lot here. Guy Pearce shows again what a fantastic lead actor he can be, with a highly nuanced and varied performance as Leonard. Carrie-Anne Moss gets it spot on as the enigmatic femme-fatale, Natalie, while Joe Pantoliano is funny and shifty to the perfect degree as Teddy. But you really have to give the most credit to director Christopher Nolan, as this is really an extraordinarily assured debut movie. It remains easily the best thing he has ever done and the sheer audacity of attempting something so original for his first feature really indicated that he was someone with considerable talent. Memento is a neo-noir masterpiece and a towering achievement for all involved.