Best movie of the year

Rating: Null/10 (12 May 2001)

Wow. I cannot begin to tell you how refreshing it is to see such a piece of art released on the commercial cinema. Memento, an independent movie distributed commercially because it's done so well, is by far the best movie I have seen this year. I liked Guy Pierce in L.A. Confidential and Ravenous, but after seeing this film, he is now one of my favorite actors. He probably has the most difficult role of the year (A guy who has a a major problem with his short term memory). The movie is a murder mystery told backwards, leaving us as confused yet determined as Pierce is. The film starts (or should i say ends)with Pierce killing a man in reverse, showing the audience that, yes, this story will be told a little differently.Guy Pierce plays Lenny, an insurance investigator who has lost the ability to make new memories after the rape/death of his wife, and he believes he has nothing to live for but revenge, so he tatoos and takes picutres of certain people and places to remember them as he searches for the man who killed and raped his wife. This film noir/psychological thriller has everything going for it: a great cast, witty dialogue, an ingenius narrative, and a music score that hits the nail on the head. The music sounds like an Angelo Badalamenti score, with its haunting synthesizers and sudden bursts of sound.Memento is a movie where you'll leave the theatre...thinking. Thinking alot. First you try to put things together, then you try to see behind the meaning of it all. I don't want to give to much away, but you'll walk out of that theatre with the strangest feeling in you.It leaves you confused, terrified, heartbroken, and finally enlightened. That's more emotions than an entire year of Hollywood movies can produce. I've seen this movie twice so far, and I'm ready to see it again. And again. Both times I walked out of a theatre deep in though about how much I loved this film.This movie gives me hope that there is life back in Hollywood Filmmaking. I had honestly never heard of it until my friend invited me to a viewing of it, and from the first image, I was hooked. This movies has a little bit of everything: a tragic love story, a murder mystery, black comedy and the like. Even if this movie doesn't do well in the theatres, it will pick up a major cult following, as well as several awards (I'm not talking about the Academy Awards...I gave up on them after Del Toro won for supporting actor). See this movie if you want to see one original, brilliant mystery film. 5 out of 5 in my book.