By Tracy Pham Guy Pearce delivers a remarkable performance as a man with no short-term memory in Momento Memento runs on a gimmick.
Some movies make use of flashbacks or tell a tale chronologically.
But Memento begins at the end of the story and ends at the beginning. The entire story is told backwards. With this in mind, the film is difficult to explain without giving away too much or taking away the visceral rush of such an innovative device. He survived, but the head trauma he sustained left him without short-term memory the ability to make new memories. He knows who he is and remembers everything up to the attack, but forgets everything else within about 15 minutes.