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Memento

Starring: Guy Pearce, Carrie-Anne Moss
Director: Christopher Nolan
Genre: Thriller
Year: 2001
Rating: 5 / 5

How best to describe a film that defies all Hollywood conventions, actually offering its viewers a satisfying narrative and an intellectual journey? Director Christopher Nolan, who also penned the script, delivers Memento, a movie that has pointed a tremendous amount of critical buzz at the relatively unknown filmmaker. This effort, starring Guy Pearce, Carrie-Anne Moss, and Joe Pantoliano, is an engrossing tale even before taking into consideration its most striking attribute - the film is shown backwards! The film opens with what would typically be considered a conclusion, drawing back then to show how it all comes to pass.

Leonard Shelby (Guy Pearce, L.A. Confidential) has lost his short-term memory. After his wife is assaulted and killed in their own home, Leonard is unable to retain any new memories. Nonetheless, he is determined to find his wife's killer. He uses any means necessary to piece together this mystery, writing notes for himself, snapping Polaroids, and even tattooing important clues all over his body. Who is Leonard Shelby? Even he is not sure anymore, but he is still driven to find the person who destroyed his life. With the help of a mysterious woman (Carrie-Anne Moss) and a strange friend (Joe Pantoliano), Leonard must begin to recapture his life, even if his memories are a thing of the past.

Imagine being unable to retain new memories. One immediately thinks of the day-to-day events that would be made that much more difficult. If you called someone for information, would you remember it by the time you hung up the phone? Would you find yourself shopping for groceries without knowing why? Nevertheless, systems could be devised to help handle such mundane tasks. More importantly, though, how would you ever be able to form meaningful relationships with people? Such relationships, founded upon shared emotions and experiences, would be next to impossible. There would be no way for you to "remind yourself" to feel something towards another person. What kind of life would this leave?

Guy Pearce gives a standout performance as the shell-shocked Leonard, driven out of his comfortable life into one which no longer makes sense to him. Pearce captures his character's frantic nature, while conveying a certain carefree attitude about his "condition." After all, he may have lost his short-term memory, but there really is not anything he can do about it. Carrie-Anne Moss (The Matrix) proves to her sci-fi fans that her career may someday evolve beyond tight leather outfits and special effects. The film's hero is actually Christopher Nolan, though, as his vision carries the audience throughout this taut thriller. Where do our memories begin? Where do they end? And how do we know that they are real? Memento offers us a chilling glimpse.

Cast:

Certification: Rated R for violence and language.
Running Time: 113 minutes.

Additional Info: Internet Movie Database
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