a smart and slick film noire

Rating: 8/10 (10 May 2001)

The basics are well known by now. A man (Guy Pearce) without the ability to retain short term memory, looks for his wife's killer. The movie works backwards in time.
The movie working backwards mirrors our hero's inability to make sense of what he is doing, without crib notes from the past, that tell him (maybe) who is who, and what is what. Except, as we(those of us with short term memory) see what is revealed we can put the information together, unlike our hapless hero. In the end we know a lot more, but are left to argue with our movie going buddies about how much we do know and how much was part of a deliberate Rashomon like prism of reality set up by the screen play.

It's probably a great movie to see again just to see the clues that we missed because we didn't know (yet) what to look for.
Carrie Ann Moss and Joe Pantoliano do great supporting work, but Guy Pearce deserves an Oscar nomination for his wound up, confused but tough, desperate seeker of truth in all the wrong places.