Memories can't be trusted

Rating: 10/10 (4 April 2001)

**SPOILERS**Memories can't be trusted
New form of cinema lands in the Indie circuit and challenges the mind.
Memento, the hypertext movie of the future, is at times a dark noire about self-destruction and corruption and other moments a backwards journey about a man's search for his dead wife's killer.
The plot of the movie consists of Leonard Shelby (portrayed by Guy Pearce) searching for his wife's killer. Unfortunately, he has a severe form of anterograde memory dysfunction, which prevents him from forming new memories, so every 15 minutes, his memory is wiped blank, or even less under stress. To compensate, he takes Polaroid photographs of important events and writes notes on the back of them. For facts about his wife's death, he tattoos them to his body, so he will never forget. Added to this are the two supporting characters Natalie (played by Carrie-Anne Moss) and Teddy (played by Joe Pantoliano) who play off Leonard's condition.
Many writers are describing the movie as a MÃ¶bius strip, as one stream of the movie continues forward in time from the not-so-distant past, and the other travels backwards from the current time to thereby meet with the other stream in the middle of the movie, which is simultaneously the end. Sound confusing? You haven't seen anything yet, until you've witnessed this movie. The best way I can think to describe it, is like opening a new book, and starting at the last chapter, skipping forward to the first chapter, then to the 2nd last chapter, until you finally meet in the middle of the book.
The backwards journey through time is used to install the feeling of being lost without memories. Because it is shot in backward-aligning segments of time, you are exploring each scene anew-missing what happened before-so you are left like Guy Pearce's character Leonard. This effect is like reviewing a forgotten memory, except that it is shot in colour so it has a feel of a fresh event. What make this even more interesting are the duplicitous supporting characters that challenge Leonard's reason for being in every scene. The dark noire, shot in black and white, give the impetus for the latter actions though the viewer may not catch this immediately, because unlike Leonard, you get to recompile the movie and form a whole.
After leaving the theatre, my mind was busily connecting the scenes I just witnessed and I couldn't help being impressed by what an amazing movie experience I just had. I think it's definitely worth your time to explore this movie. === spoiler=============>

=== spoiler=============> One thing i noticed in this page is that is says there's a goof in that the character shouldnt' be able to remember that he has a memory disorder. But i don't agree, cuz Leonard states several times that people with less severe forms of this disorder can learn through repetition. I believe he has trained himself through repetition, because he can remember some things -- the flashback's he has verifies this -- and he can work progressively (not starting fresh each time) -- the entire movie is a testament to this.

And also the fact that he has become what he has, should also confirm this. While Natalie and Teddy (John G.) use Leonard disorder for their own purposes, he ultimately proves that he is better at using himself.