A mind-bending mystery thriller from a genre master

Rating: 10/10 (24 May 2018)

Memento is one of those one-of-a-kind mystery thrillers that just enthrall you every second it is playing on whatever screen you're watching it on. Leonard, a guy with memory problems, is played brilliantly by Guy Pearce; it's a nuance performance that only gets better with age. It's a mix of naive brilliance, bumbling complexity, and each glance and facial expression is infused with the quest for knowledge and answers, something we can all relate too at some point in our lives.
Memento's main hook of course, if you haven't seen it after all these years, is that the movie is played in reverse, to an extent. The colored scenes are played backwards, representing Leonard's memory struggles. It's really interesting watching a movie like this; the audience becomes armed with information that Leonard forgets as the movie goes on. To Leonard, these colored scenes are advancing normally. It gives the audience the same profoundly limited vantage possessed by Leonard. Leonard cannot remember what happened 5 minutes ago and thus enters every scene ignorant of what has already transpired. Since the movie is told in reverse chronological order, the audience also enters every scene with no idea of what has transpired. If that sounds mind-boggling, that's because it very much is. It makes a lot more sense when you watch the movie, trust me.
The movie also has black-and-white scenes which are played chronologically. Eventually, the b&w scenes and colored scenes overlap. The other major characters, such as Natalie (Carrie-Anne Moss), and Teddy (Joe Pantoliano), highly enrich the experience with their great performances as well. Teddy in particular oozes sleaziness, but as you watch there's a lot more to his character than director Christopher Nolan may initially let on.