Nolan explores the depths of memory

Rating: 10/10 (1 April 2019)

Last night I watched this film, after re-watching If Beale Street Could Talk, which was a sharp departure from the aforementioned film. Explored is the similar theme of memory and remembering, one which often comes up in shows like Mr. Robot, which is ending this year and Terry Gilliam's strange dystopian film, Twelve Monkeys, in 1995. The plot is simple: the protagonist, Leonard Shelby, played by Guy Pearce, has lost his short-term memory and is trying to find the killer of his wife, Catherine Shelby (played by Jorja Fox). As he tells the audience, he lost his memory as he was knocked out after he shot his wife's killer, so he remembers "important facts" on Polaroids he takes and on tattoos across his body. Certain characters literally take advantage of this condition like a local bartender, Natalie, played by Carrie-Anne Moss, to kill/intimidate her boyfriend, Dodd, played by Callum Keith Rennie, and the head of a local hotel, Burt, played by Mark Boone Junior, the latter whom charges him for two separate rooms because he "won't remember." However, the story posed by John Edward "Teddy" Gammell, played by Joe Pantoliano, who claims to be an undercover cop which is investigating local gangs, including James F. "Jimmy" Grantz, played by Larry Holden. In the story Teddy tells, the protagonist killed his own wife, whom had diabetes, with injection of insulin, and now goes around from town to town killing people whom he claims are the "killer" of his wife! If this is the case, however, why does Teddy allow it to happen? Has the protagonist conditioned himself, as he claims happened with the case of Samuel R. "Sammy" Jankis (played by Stephen Tobolowsky) and Mrs. Jankis (played by Harriet Sansom Harris)? Or is that just a fabrication in his mind?
By the end of the film, the viewer is still relatively confused. Whom can be trusted? Teddy or the protagonist? We still don't know. We know no more than the story provides us. It is almost an obvious bet that every character is lying to the audience, deceiving each other in some way or another. But that makes the film interesting. In this way it is similar to Happy Accidents (2000) in that we don't know whether Sam Deed (played by Vincent D'Onofrio) is telling the truth about his travel from the future to the present, or if he is just a con man trying to make ends meet. This is why neurologists praise this film, as do film critics as it is a film that keeps you thinking.
I could be like soloyoda in their April 2001 review of this film but I think summarizing part of the plotline is worth doing, especially since there is no "happy ending" to this film, or no spoilers in the sense that they will ruin the movie's enjoyment. This film is much more than what that review calls "a highly intelligence and original brain teaser that will have you guessing from beginning to end, and even afterwards," although that is abundantly true without question. I would add that this film is interesting in that is not a straight narrative from beginning to end, but jumps around. In some ways this makes it resemble Pulp Fiction (1994), although that film is, in and of itself, its own animal. Additionally, I would say this film (Nolan's second film he directed after Following in 1998) differs from Nolan's other films, although it shares some similarities, in terms of a focus on memory and remembering, with Inception (2010) and Interstellar (2014).
With that, I bring this review to a close and feel that it fully deserves a 10 out of 10, a rating I give out sparingly, only to the films I like the most.