You will not forget this film.

Rating: 10/10 (5 February 2002)

With a few exceptions Memento is a fairly common story. In no way is it a common film. This is one of the most cleverly edited films I have ever seen. The approach that director Christopher Nolan takes to tell us the story is the films strongest suit. This is not to say that the film is short in other aspects. The cinematography is superb. The actors deliver virtually flawless performances. The score is never overpowering yet facilitates the feel of the scenes as they unfold. The dialogue is intelligent and provoking. The action is never boring with its stark transitions working to an integral purpose.
The way the story is told is the essence of Memento and why it works so well. The story seems to play out in reverse. That is partly true. It is told from the end AND the beginning towards the center, or summit if you will. The audience ultimately discovers the protagonist's true motivation and comes to understand the reasons behind the seemingly disjointed activities they have witnessed.
The film opens with what is surely the end of the story as the titles are presented. Unlike the rest of the footage, this scene is truly played in reverse. This is the story's ultimate conclusion. However, after the opening titles are played, the first forward moving scene is of the protagonist in a motel room trying to adjust to his strange condition. This is the true beginning of the story time line. The events are played forward in time and backwards in time, in parallel toward the astonishing final revelation. The forward sequences are presented in black and white while the backward sequences are presented in color. This interplay continues through out the film until the final segment where the two time points converge on the ultimate tension of the story. At this convergence and within a single scene the black and white footage smoothly emerges into full color. Even though they move forward in time, the black and white scenes are actually retrospective of the main character's experiences that lead him to his understanding of his condition. The affliction that the protagonist suffers is described through the experience of a third person whom we are, at a point in the story, led to confuse with the protagonist. The truth is revealed at the climatic ending of the film; which as it turns out, is the summit of the story. Everything becomes clear to the audience as to what the beginning of the film had revealed.
Memento is without a doubt the most effectual use of editing and story development to involve the audience with the problems of the protagonist that I have ever witnessed. Memento is a masterful film that will surely become an example used in film making colleges for years to come.
John H. Freeman