Surrealistic Suspense in One of the Most Original of Films

Rating: 10/10 (4 October 2008)

What if you woke up in a motel room with almost no memory of getting there? You look at your surroundings, and it appears as if you are supposed to be there. You see the room keys. You see your personal items. You see car keys. It looks like you checked in, but you do not remember doing so. And you see pictures and notes that appear to have been created by you, but you have no memory of the moment of their creation. You only have a vague sense that you did them. This is the dilemma of Leonard Shelby, played by Guy Pearce in maybe the role of his career. Leonard's problem is simple but makes his life more complicated than most people could ever comprehend. He has lost his short-term memory capabilities. Every subsequent situation in his life seems born anew as if nothing came before it.
Each scene is presented in a way that allows the viewer to experience, more or less, this dilemma. Shelby sees people, buildings, and cars, but is not sure how they relate to him. And he uses little mementos, photographs and notes, to remind him not only who they are but how they relate to him, hence the title. What others might use to simply enhance their existing memory, like photos, Shelby uses to function. And he's trying to solve a mystery: to find the murderer of his wife.
A highly original and surreal film that lacks comparison. There is simply no film quite like it. For those who believe that Hitchcock's work is the pinnacle of suspense, you haven't seen the potential of the genre until you've experienced "Memento". And it all works largely because of the tour-de-force performance by Guy Pearce, the equally superb acting by the supporting cast, and the incredible writing and directing of Christopher Nolan, based on a short story by his brother Jonathan Nolan. The film also forces you to learn how to watch it as the story is not told in a traditional linear style. But I'll keep the door shut on that as you'll have to be the one to open it. And please do. The surprises behind the door of Memento are definitely worth the effort of unlocking its secrets.