New Same-Old

Rating: 6/10 (21 April 2001)

"Memento" is tough to pin down. The gimmick is generally great, but it's the only good thing about the film.
Guy Pearce plays Leonard Shelby, a former insurance investigator with a condition ("severe anterograde memory dysfunction", for those of you en route to med school) that leaves him unable to form any memories. He introduces himself to people he's met dozens of times, he writes down anything he hopes to remember (as basic as where he's driving his car to), and tattoos the real important stuff all over his body. The only thing he can remember is the home invasion that left him with his condition, and his drive to kill the man who raped and murdered his wife.
Given this, it almost makes sense that the film plays in reverse. The opening scene shows Leonard gunning down a man in cold blood; in the next scene that same man is alive, and we learn a (very little) bit about why Leonard has done this deed (he has a Polaroid of the man; on the back is written "Don't believe his lies. He is the one. Kill him."). And this is the way the movie plays, with the last line of every scene being a repeat of the first line of the previous scene.
It fits quite smartly, since the camera never leaves our hero. We're stuck in his world. He has no memory with which to process the events he lives, why should we? There is no way we could sympathize with this character if "Memento" played forward, so reverse it is.
Unfortunately, if this story played forward, it would have a hatful of other problems also. If it didn't follow the film noir playbook to the letter, it could at least keep the viewer working on untangling the confusion. As it is, however, the viewer is constantly two scenes ahead of the movie. When each bombshell is dropped about what's really up with the characters (when you boil it down, the film only has three), you're not the least bit surprised. You've already seen the last of them, so it's generally obvious how they got into the film in the first place, when considered in the context of Teddy's (played cleverly by Joe Pantoliano) death at the beginning/end. Even if you're not sitting in the theater playing detective, when director Christopher Nolan tells you the real dirt on Leonard/Teddy/Natalie, any surprise you may experience will be tempered with the realization that it couldn't have been any other way.
It's been suggested to me that this film requires repeat viewings. I feel quite the opposite; that the extremely pedestrian nature of the storyline can't be disguised once you're in on it. Leonard has no memory; you do. As it was, I found this movie pleasant enough, but more for novelty than any more conventional qualities of a film. 2 1/2 stars.