Still Nolan's best after all these years

Rating: 9/10 (6 May 2015)

Memento was only director Christopher Nolan's second full-length feature film, but damn, what a film. I'm of the relatively rare opinion – at least if IMDb ratings are anything to go by – that this is Nolan's best film to date. Despite his popular output, this film wins in terms of pure originality.
Memento is based on a short story – Memento Mori – written by Nolan's brother, Jonathan Nolan. There are similarities (the dead wife, the amnesia) between the story and the film, but whereas the short story seems to function as an essay on concepts of amnesia and time, Christopher Nolan adapted these ideas in the form of a thriller, though it's anything but straightforwardliterally. Leonard (Guy Pearce) suffers from Anterograde Amnesia which means he cannot form new memories. Basically, it's short-term memory loss. He'll be aware of who he is and where he is for about 15 minutes (30 if he's lucky) after which he'll blank out, forget who he's talking to, what he's doing, etc. He's been suffering from this ever since his wife was raped and killed by two men in his home. He was able to kill one of them that night, but received a blow to the head from the other, resulting in his condition. His life since then has consisted of one thing: find the second man and kill him. To combat his condition, he takes photographs of important things in his life (his car, his motel) and has crucial information tattooed on his body. He receives 'assistance' from two other characters during his journey who may or may not have ulterior motives.
What's impressive is that besides being a very well made revenge thriller, the film also has plenty of time to ask the kind of philosophical questions the short story asks: what is the point of revenge if Leonard will forget he avenged his wife anyway? Do things like truth and facts apply to Leonard's condition, as in how can he truly know certain things for sure? How does the concept of time apply to someone like Leonard? What kind of life is there for Leonard besides avenging his wife? The film functions both as thriller and commentary on the drama underlying Leonard's condition.
In the end, what solidifies this film as a classic in the thriller genre and modern cinema in its entirety is its structure. The film has two types of scenes: color and black-and-white, and it constantly alternates between these two types. Also, the B-W scenes are chronologically correct (1-2-3), but the scenes in color are placed in reverse (Z-Y-X). Mind you: the don't literally play backwards, but are placed in reverse. So the structure can be described as followed: Z-1-Y-2-X-3, etc.). This might sound confusing, but it will make more and more sense as you watch it. One of the best things about it, is that the beginning of one color scene is also the end of the next color scene. So, you're constantly struggling to remember what came after, trying to connect the dots. The wonderful thing about it is that, like Leonard, you are also struggling from (an (artificial sense of) short-term memory loss, as you never know what came before. Many scenes begin with a confused Leonard not knowing where he is, which is also the position the viewer occupies (at least for first-time viewers). Crucially, instead of merely being a story about amnesia in filmic form, the film succeeds greatly in utilizing the possibilities of its own medium to great effect, by using editing to put the audience in the position of someone suffering from short-term memory loss, never really knowing what came before.
Claims about a plothole have been circulating on the internet. The question that has been asked multiple times is how Leonard is able to know he has Anterograde Amnesia when he's unable to create new memories. I for one have no idea, but I guess we have to implicitly assume it's on one of his notes or tattoos. But honestly, when a thriller is so original and downright exciting as Memento, who even cares? Would you rather have a mediocre, factually correct thriller or one with (maybe) one or two plot holes, but executed so well it actually does what its genre says it should, thrill? One made so well it made you leap out of your seat? Because that is exactly what happened to me when I first watched it in my teens. I was so blown away and ecstatic I had to pause it midway so I could run up to my parents and extol to them the virtues of Memento. If that doesn't motivate you to watch it, then I don't know what will.