Tattoo 'Memento' on your body as a MUST SEE

Rating: 10/10 (30 June 2009)

This is my second viewing of 'Memento' since it debuted in 2000 and I have the same feelings about it: masterpiece, original, great dialogue, wonderful concept and extremely well acted. And since 2000, hardly any other movie has come close to the brilliance this movie has shown. What other movie has been played backward? 'Memento' starts off with a murder and works its way carefully and uniquely backwards through a mystery a man with no short-term memory and an audience must solve. Pearce plays the main character completely convincingly as does co-stars (and 'Matrix' co-stars) Moss and Pantoliano. A man stricken with no short-term memory after an accident must put together pieces of a puzzle after his wife gets murdered, so he can get revenge. Along the way he meets and re-meets people who might be aiding his quest, all the while we learn certain people are extremely dangerous. I can't say enough, I LOVED this movie. Everything worked for it, and finally a movie (not a dumb summer popcorn movie, sorry 'Transformers') makes me use my brain. You really have to think, take little breaks and pay attention. I admired the episode of 'Seinfeld' when they did the same thing (one of the series best episodes ever) – and that was the only other work I can think of that used this concept: telling the story backwards. Sure, you can like big-budgeted movies, but they hardly ever show the respect that director Christopher Nolan did during this feature. Ironically, Nolan also directed the big-budgeted, latest 'Batman' adventures. Guess what? They're 100x better than the previous four. This man knows what's good and how to show it. Sit back, listen to every word spoken or unspoken and enjoy one of the best mysteries, or simply, best movies ever made.