One of the best films of all time!

Rating: 10/10 (14 January 2003)

This film has easily shot into my top 20 all-time favorites--right back to the dawn of the "talkies". It will confidently stand with the best of film noir like "Sunset Boulevard" (is there an oblique nod at that movie in Lynch's title?) or "The Big Sleep," as well as with other great puzzle pics like Resnais' "Last Year At Marienbad," or ethical fantasies like Tarkovsky's "Solaris."
People complain that the film diverges from a credible mystery thriller into some sort of haphazard surrealism; but this is far from the case. You simply need to see that the end of the film is either; 1) the beginning of the film, its unseen preface,as it were; or b) a much later ending, after our heroine has been dragged into an unhealthy love affair; or c) both of these.
There is nothing nonsensical about this picture. Ambiguous, yes; symbolic, yes; even, yes, non-linear. But not incomprehensible.
But "Memento" is also non-linear. And that is a great film because both the nature of film itself, as well as the nature of the protagonist's illness, results in a story more powerful, not less, for being outside the usual stream of narrative relation.
I've studied this movie a lot, and I could write a dissertation on it; but I won't bore you with explaining the film to you. Let it suck you in, and you can't help flash on the meanings and implications of Betty's/Diane's story.
Let me add that the actress who plays Betty/Diane, Naomi Watts, is clearly going to replace Laura Dern as Lynch's star of choice. Whatever it is that attracts Lynch to young, intelligent, but vulnerable blondes, Watts has got in spades. But you have to watch this woman act to believe her. Watts plays a wannabe actress, and Lynch crafts several scenes were she gets to play her role within a role to jaw-dropping perfection. Beleive me, she is flat out astounding.
Another bit of sublime magic is the performance of female vocalist in a cabaret act where a pop song gets sung in such a remarkable manner that it transcends its humble origins and achieves the status of true art song.
Where did Lynch find this singer? And when will she be coming out with an album of her own?
All I can say is that this film is simply an amazing tour de force. It is both quintessentially Lynch, and yet it raises the bar on pure film making another notch.