Brilliant Film ** Major spoilers ahead **

Rating: 9/10 (11 August 2001)

Quite simply, I've not been so intriqued by a film in a long while. This is THE film of 2001, no questions about it. It forces you to go back to view again. MAJOR SPOILERS First - we must understand the facts of the film. We can argue all we want. People will have their own versions. But the version below is a correct account of parts of the movie whether you like to believe it or not:
Catherine Shelby was raped. She did not die. Leonard kills one of the two home invaders. Yes, there were two of them. The other one was NOT imaginary. The other bonks Leonard's head - causing Leonard to sustain short-term memory loss and he gets away. Catherine recovers. Some time later, Catherine, frustrated by Leonard's memory loss attempts to snap him out of it. She does this by administering the Insulin test. Leonard fails the test. Catherine die via Leonard's hands. Leonard knows this, but cannot accept that he has killed her. He must shift the blame to someone else. He shifts the blame on Sammy Jankis. Sammy is a REAL person, not imaginary. Sammy did not have a wife. Sammy's story is characterizes Leonard's story. The exception is that Sammy could not learn through condition/repetition. Leonard can. In fact, Leonard conditions himself to believe that his wife died in the attack (which she did not). He conditioned himself to believe that Sammy's wife (who did not exist) died from insulin. He effectively shifts the act of him killing his wife onto Sammy. Also, we must understand that while Leonard has memory loss, it is not 100%. He CAN remember, but only selectively, and it's what he wants to remember. For example, he can remember the sequence of fact numbers, and he members Burt's name. Most importantly, he remembers that he himself has memory loss. This is core and central to the movie. Folks, you must understand this - Leonard REMEMBERS that he has partial memory loss. Think about it - if he cannot make new memories after the "incident" how then does he understands that he has the condition? Make no mistake about it - he remember things selectively. When come to grips with this movie, you will understand that Leonard is the real villain in the film. He chooses to remember things he wants to. He manipulates his memories to distort the facts. There is no reason to shed any sympathy for him. In the end, this is not a film about who killed who. This film challenges us to question the validity of our own memories - how memories can be distorted and changed. Sorry if I upset those who disagree.