A complete experience

Rating: 9/10 (27 February 2006)

Memento definitely ranks top in my list of favorites. I have seen the movie many times and every time I see it, I realize it has a fascinating blend of all facets of movie making.
Generally when one talks about this movie, the focus is on the directorial misadventure or brilliance to run the movie backwards and forwards to converge somewhere but I have strongly felt that this is only one of the many beautiful things the crew of Memento have done to this great movie. I would like to discuss some other amazing feature ignored by many critics.
Memento is a story of a guy who has lost his power to retain and create new memories after an "incident". So basically, this movie revolves around this guy Lenny and his quest to exist in a world where his condition is almost an exception. But since one needs a reason to carry on the ventures of daily existence and since Lenny has no way of remembering these reasons, so he invents some extraordinary techniques to remember them - taking photographs and writing notes on his body. He tends to create opportunities and forget that he created them and that the reasons he has created are not a consequence of natural course of life. The movie not only brilliantly explores the agony and pain of a person suffering of such a condition but it also describes the journey of this person to fight all odds and still exist in a world without time but only matter.
The "incident", which happens to be the last memory of his, is compelling him to exist but only till he finds the man responsible for it and kills him. Lennys knows that after he has killed the man, he would loose the reason to live and so he practices the great gift given to him-the ability to forget.
Christopher Nolan has displayed that story telling is the most important part of movie making. He has successfully brought all the faces cinematic experience in one masterpiece.
If movies mean anything to you, you have to see this one.