A Cinematic Miracle

Rating: 10/10 (7 May 2001)

As soon as you leave the theatre, you'll begin to insist on knowing how on Earth a human being concocted such an enormously complex web of a story, translated it perfectly to film, and then had the gall to completely mess with the whole way time works.
Memento is a lot like other "Never Saw It Coming" twist-ending movies in that you will most definitely enjoy multiple viewings. The odd part is that the twist should be a total give-away the whole time. You'll feel fooled by the shock at the end and demand to know everything that you had just seen all over again.
This is exactly why this premise works. Instead of telling the story sequentially, Memento takes you through the bassackwards world of Lenny, learning for the first time things that have happened already. It leads to some great moments, like when he is being chased/chasing Dodd. Don't know what I mean? Go see the movie!
The ending is the story though, so it isn't like a gimmick, it is entirely essential. The trick ending to the Sixth Sense could have not been and most of the entire plot would remain the same. In Memento, the twist ending is the entire point of the movie, and all of the characters actually interact with this inevitability.
So out of four stars I give it ****. A perfect film.