THIS MOVIE DOES NOT RUN BACKWARDS!!! READ THIS FOR AN EXPLANATION OF TIME SEQUENCES!!!

Rating: 8/10 (19 November 2001)

Don't read this one unless you have already seen the movie...could ruin the fun!
Sorry for the shouting headline, but it seems that almost everyone thought the time sequences ran backwards in the movie. That is actually only half right. The sequences are interleaved -- one color sequence, then one black and white sequence. The color sequences start at the end and get progressively earlier in time, while the B&W sequences start at the beginning and progress forward in time (i.e., each one picking up where the last left off). The final sequence of the movie (which is the middle of the story) starts in black and white, then brilliantly and subtly shifts into color as the two timelines come together (the shift occurs as the polaroid of Jimmy G is developing).
To illustrate, suppose for a moment there are 8 sequences in the movie. In real time, the sequences occur in order from 1 to 8. In the movie, they would be presented in the following order:
8 - color
1 - b&w
7 - color
2 - b&w
6 - color
3 - b&w
5 - color
4 - b&w becomes color
The transition from B&W to color in the final scene is *very* subtle...I didn't notice it the first time I watched the movie, and at first I also thought the timeline moved backwards. I watched it again the next day, noticed the change in the final scene, then realized the story was converging on the middle rather than going back in time.
Definitely a fresh and interesting twist -- I thought it was sort of like "Pulp Fiction" (out of sequence storyline) meets "The Usual Suspects" (ending which calls into question all assumptions made by the viewer since the beginning) meets the book "Time's Arrow" by Martin Amis (man lives his entire live in reverse).
Also, after watching it the first time, there was a strange lingering affect, where for a while afterward, linear time didn't seem quite right to me. Almost a flashback sort of effect.