Comment on some of the Negative Comments

Rating: 10/10 (9 January 2002)

I've read through many of the comments on IMDB for "Memento," and I was surprised at how many of them focused on the "top 10" argument. (As in, "This is a good movie but it shouldn't be in the top 10 of all time.") Well, obviously enough people have voted on this movie at imdb to place it in the top 10, so the whole argument is over. Done. Move on!
Secondly, some of the "holes" that people have pointed out can either be explained or are, in my opinion, intentionally unexplainable. For example, the whole "if he REALLY had no short term memory, then he wouldn't remember that he had no short term memory" discussion. Was I the only one that noticed that this argument was the whole point of the movie?
SPOILERS!!! I mean, when the film ends and Lenny's memories are brought into question--did his wife really die? Did he already kill John G? Was he really Sammy Jenkins?--then I began to wonder if he even really had a memory problem to begin with. After all, everyone doubted Sammy's memory problems, even Lenny. In fact, Lenny says to Sammy's wife that Sammy should be able to make new memories. But HE's Sammy... It's like his subconscious is trying to tell him that if he really wanted to, he'd be able to make new memories without a problem. He just doesn't really want to... he's stuck in a world of depression and guilt over what happened. That's why every once in a while he remembers things that he probably shouldn't have (like the gun in the drawer...knowing the car that Teddy drove so he could write down the license plate number... etc)
Then again, that interpretation could be totally false, too. There's no definitive answer... the movie is built to make you discuss and question everything you've seen. The BEST thing about Memento is that it DOESN"T explain everything away (a la Vanilla Sky). It trusts the audience to form its own opinions through intelligent discussions...