One big gimmick

Rating: 1/10 (25 September 2002)

As I write this, Memento is listed as number 10 on IMDb's top 250. It is ahead of Apocalypse Now, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Dr. Strangelove, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Lawrence of Arabia, The Graduate, Raging Bull, The Sting, The Empire Strikes Back, The Wizard of Oz, The Bridge on the River Kwai, The Deer Hunter, Gone With the Wind, every Hitchcock movie, every Woody Allen movie, and every Kurosawa movie, except Seven Samurai, just to name a few.
To hear the people on this board tell it, Memento is the 21st century's Godfather or Citizen Kane. I rented this film because of all the high praise it received. What I was treated to was an average film with only one outstanding performance (Joe Pantoliano), enough plot holes to drive a Jaguar through, and a gigantic gimmick that is as essential to the film as the shark is to Jaws.
The movie is chopped into a number of scenes and shown in reverse. If one were to re-edit the film and show it front to back, it would be devoid of suspense. All the "cerebral puzzles" etc. would be gone. Even in its weird order, it's not all that deep. The director uses the sequencing and the protagonists's disorder to keep the viewer guessing. It's all a big trick, and by the end, the viewer is just relieved that it is over.
There may be real people who suffer from this inability to create new memories, but I highly doubt they are able to function effectively as Pearce's character did. Nor do they have a network of friends who help them function and fail to get them professional help, especially when they are on a homicidal vendetta.
Do not waste your time here. This movie has been rated highly by a bunch of people who mistake directorial sleight of hand for real movie magic. Rent any of the films I mentioned in the first paragraph. They actually deserve their praise.