Stretching it Somewhat

Rating: Null/10 (19 October 2003)

Coincidence has always been a staple of narrative fiction, many films have used coincidence, in fact more than a few have relied on it but I do feel that Memento pushes things a bit.
Guy Pearce plays an insurance investigator whose first case involves a man who claims to have no short term memory; he in fact can't make new memories, a very rare condition. After a thorough investigation Pearce refuses the claim, concluding that the man is faking it. (Even though in a test the claimant repeatedly picks up an electrified object, forgetting in a matter of a couple of minutes the electric shock he keeps getting)
So shortly thereafter, when Pearce surprises a rapist attacking his wife and receives a blow to the head, what do you think is the outcome? You guessed it, he can't form new memories!
The device of telling the story `backwards' has been done before in the Harold Pinter-scripted British drama `Betrayal' and in the Jane Campion Australian TV-feature `Two Friends'. But perhaps it hasn't been tried in a Hollywood movie.
Blonded Aussie Pearce does a convincing U.S. accent but I wasn't as impressed as most were by Memento.