Brilliantly conceived device thriller

Rating: 9/10 (22 June 2001)

Writer-Director Nolin succeeds in turning story telling up-side-down in this brilliantly conceived, well executed, and adequately performed device thriller.
Our hero Leonard Shelby has a brain condition which prevents him from remembering anything beyond five minutes. He barely manages to function by constant use of photos, notes, and tattoos to communicate with himself. To insure that the viewer is as disoriented as Shelby is, we are told the story backwards in roughly five minute episodes.
The following statement does not ruin the plot: The story ends (or rather begins over the opening credits) with our hero killing a man. We then creep backwards in time to understand the causes and effects that brought us to that point.