Original,interesting,intriguing

Rating: 10/10 (22 April 2001)

"May contain a spoiler"
Leonard Shelby (Guy Pearce) can't hold any new memory ever since his wife was rape and murdered before his own eyes and he is seeking revenge in order "to get his life back". The story is nothing new, however the way the story is told is so refreshing that the story doesn't matter any more. Instead of telling the story from a the start, the director Christopher Nolan decided to tell the story backwards and through the eyes of Leonard Shelby. In that way he manage to get our attention because we see the story as Shelby see it and as Shelby, we don't have a clue to what happened before and we have to watch the film close in order to get all the details, and yet by the end I was left with the feeling that I missed something and questioned my own memory and was doubting whether I understood the film and really saw everything.
So here is a film who deals with the subject of memory and truth and eventually make the audience doubt his own memory and what he perceive as the truth. The whole film is like a puzzle and the end doesn't give you the satisfaction of solving it.On the contrary. By the end you get another version to the events which seems as possible as what we saw before.
Technically speaking this is simply a superb film. If I understand correctly Nolan has shoot the movie the way it is been told(ie: backwards) which means that someone had to follow every detail so it will be accurate. I don't think I have seen any mistakes in the details. But technicality is not the only thing that stand out in this movie. The acting is brilliant. Guy Pearce shows that LA Confidential was not a one time achievement and Joe Pantoliano as Teddy is in good form and give the right balance to Pearce's character. I also liked the way San-Francisco is portrayed here,not as a big city with a lot of people but rather like a city in the middle of nowhere.
I highly recommend this film to anyone who find himself bored from films which carry so much cliché and want to see something original. In this film they will find originality which at the same time keep us interested in what's going on.
Simply go and see.