Film Noir in Reverse Gear

Rating: Null/10 (28 April 2001)

`The Arabians learn Arabian with the speed of summer lightning And the Hebrews learn it backwards which is absolutely frightening'.
I don't know whether writer-director Christopher Nolan is Hebrew or Arabian (Arabic is also written from right to left) but he has made effective use of inverting the usual procedure of telling the story from beginning to end. You'd think it would be hard to maintain tension in a thriller when we know at the start who did what to whom, but you are kept on your toes by the necessity to work out just how each succeeding scene fits in to the previous one (which is the one later in time  got that?)
The other bit of artifice is Leonard Shelby's loss of short term memory. This is certainly an odd ailment since he is clearly able to concentrate on what he is doing eg taking his aide-memoire polaroids, making love or killing someone in revenge for his wife's murder, not to mention finding where he parked his Jaguar, yet he cannot remember what happens from scene to scene  we the audience, running backwards in time, have to do that for him. He conditions himself to `remember' some things and, being a well-organised fellow with his photos, notes and tattoos, copes a bit better than the unlucky Sammy Jankis he met in his previous life as an insurance investigator.
The actual plot is pretty mundane  innocent victim of drug-related crime, man out for revenge, shady beauty helping, bent cop using man for own ends - but is very effectively packaged and well acted out. Guy Pearce as Leonard spends a lot of the time in his underwear, but, cutely good-looking as he is, he does a brilliant job of inciting our sympathies even as we realise that a man who can't remember killing someone is a very dangerous person indeed. John Pantoliano as Teddy the bent cop is relentlessly amiable even as it becomes clear he is up to no good. Carrie-Anne Moss as Natalie the drug dealer's girlfriend who helps Guy for her own reasons has a careworn beauty that transcends her commonplace lines and foul language.
The action is not too hard to follow and the suspense is maintained until the end. The only slightly puzzling feature was the use of some sepia sequences  one scene really, running forward in time but broken up and scattered through the film. It didn't seem to add much to the action though it provided some of the explanation as to who Guy had got where he was.

Altogether, an interesting variation of the film noir revenge genre. I couldn't help thinking, though it was a bit like watching someone drive their car with great facility round an obstacle course and high speed in reverse gear. Impressive, but all a bit artificial.