A great film for directors or film editors

Rating: Null/10 (29 October 2001)

Leonard Shelby (Guy Pearce) is hunting the man who killed his wife. He has to do this while struggling with short term memory loss meaning he relies on photos of important things and tattooing important facts on his body.
As everyone in the world knows the film runs backwards from the end for the majority - meaning that we, like Leonard see events without any knowledge of what has gone before. Like him we only have photos etc to help us. Unlike him we know what will happen and this makes it easier to follow the story. The film follows two streams - one where Leonard is telling someone over the phone about Sammy Jankis - a man who has the same memory condition. The second stream is the main narrative backwards.
This film is amazing. If the story was told forwards then there would be very little here but the devil is in the editing. This is a director's film - the key lies in the editing of scenes and the many visual tricks that provide clues to the conclusion of the film. The main compliant everyone has is that the ending leaves too many questions unanswered - however on the first viewing this is not true. The first time you see it the ending is simply and devastating - the twist is not as breath taking as Usual Suspects or Se7en but it will profoundly move you. When you get over this you begin to pick back over the plot and the "Sammy Jankis" section and you will find it difficult to come up with a water-tight solution. But to me that's one of the things to enjoy - the discussion with friends about the film and the fact that it stays with you for weeks after you've watched it.
Pearce is excellent in the lead, I cannot believe this guy once was in Neighbours! He is a totally believable character and makes the audience feel so many different things throughout. Joe Pantoliano is excellent - but then he always is. Even Carrie Anne Moss is good. The strength of Moss and Pantoliano is that we don't know who they are - are they Leonard's friends, enemies, good, bad? - and they play on this ignorance wonderfully.
The film is not in the top 250 because of the story but because of the editing. This is so different from anything else recently that it blows you away. It takes 15 minutes to get going but once you're in then you're in. This is worth watching as it shows how even a simple story can have a huge impact.