Sometimes a movie is so complicated you have to see it twice.

Rating: 9/10 (8 September 2001)

Sometimes a move is so complicated it has to be seen twice; once forward and once backward. Memento is such a movie.
We already saw it in reverse; now lets run the scenes forward. The advantage of renting a DVD is that you can explore the inside. Not that the movie was too hard to understand; it's just that the writer/director, Nolan, left so much out.
The special features tell you that that memory-man did indeed cause his wife's death and that he had escaped from an asylum to seek the "killers" of his wife. All this is alluded to in the movie but since most of it comes from the Pantoliano character, you don't know what to believe.
The characters played by Pantoliano and Carrie-Ann Moss are especially hard to pin down. When do they lie or tell the truth?
In fact then the audience is intentionally left in the dark the same way memory man is confused. That is the beauty of the movie. Is it necessary to know all during the playing of the story? The answer is no. Because, the not knowing keeps the interest and the concentration level maximized throughout the playing of the tale. It is only afterward that you want to talk it out with a friend or read about it from the DVD.