Genius thriller

Rating: 9/10 (28 August 2016)

This unique and well-crafted tale is a top-notch thriller packed with suspense, excellent characterisation, and a style of story-telling which means the viewer has to use his or her brain for a change. Unsurprisingly it seems to have been ignored by the mainstream crowd, but in any case it's one of the best (if not THE best) films of 2000. Guy Pearce is outstanding in the leading role of Leonard, a man who has developed a short-term memory loss syndrome since a horrific accident which means he cannot remember anything for longer than twenty minute intervals. Thus he is forced to tattoo clues on his body and take Polaroids to remind himself of his quest, which is to hunt for the man who raped and murdered his wife and kill him.
The genius thing about this film is that it starts at the end (Leonard begins the film by killing the man responsible) and goes back to the beginning. I was pretty sceptical of how this would work but director Christopher Nolan has done himself proud. The style of story-telling involves one scene ending and the next scene finishing at the beginning of the previous one. Confusing at first, but don't worry as Nolan takes things slowly, giving the viewer time to get used to the method before hitting them with two-faced characters, plot twists, and some tense situations. The film is extremely suspenseful in that you really get inside Leonard's head and can sympathise with his plight and the unusual story makes for lots of interesting situations and ideas. On top of this, there's a breath-taking surprising twist ending (or is that beginning?) which rewards the viewer for watching and is as good as any I've seen beforehand (THE USUAL SUSPECTS or otherwise). The film is technically excellent, the supporting cast brilliant, and I can't fathom why Nolan or Pearce failed to get Oscars for their parts in this. Seek it out now.