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Rating: Null/10 (26 December 2001)

I'd say Memento was interesting in concept but strangely devoid of empathy for its characters. Film Noir usually deals with characters who are hard to have sympathy for but this film seems colder than most. Compare Leonard with the car salesman played by William H. Macy in Fargo. That character planned and perpetrated a terrible crime but because the script and Macy's performance gave us a full portrait of the man and his weaknesses and situation, we could have actual feeling for him. I couldn't really feel for Leonard much less for any of the other characters. Interestingly, for a film that runs backwards, certain aspects of the development of the characters still ran true to the conceits of regular movie story arcs. The first (ie: last) scene with Natalie the barmaid has her being very sympathetic to Leonard. Later on (I mean "earlier") in the story, Natalie lets out (spoiler alert) with a lot of venom toward Leonard that would be appropriate during the last third of a normal movie-except that at this point she has only just met him. Since female characters in movies invariably start out by hating the guy, then liking him, then getting mad at him, then forgiving him again, having a female character go through these changes backwards doesn't really break any new ground, does it?