Memento – 4/5 stars

You see, I have this condition…

Leonard Shelby(Guy Pierce), an ex-insurance investigator, is tracking down John G., the man who raped and murdered his wife. The only problem is that he was in an accident that stopped him from being able to make new memories. To combat his short-term memory loss, he gets tattoos for the important things and takes Polaroid photos and writes notes on the bottom for the people he meets, the place he is staying and even the car he drives.

Memento was released May 25, 2001 and was directed by Christopher Nolan (Interstellar, Inception, Dunkirk). Alongside Guy Pierce, it stars Carrie-Anne Moss (The Matrix) and Joe Pantoliano (Also The Matrix, and Bad Boys). 

 I have been wanting to watch Memento for a while because it’s on my “100 Movie Bucket List” scratch-off poster, but also because it is one of Christopher Nolan’s earlier films and I’ve heard good things about it. Memento is essentially a story told in reverse, and this is done so the audience is viewing the movie as the protagonist would, not knowing what happened before or who the characters are and whether or not they can be trusted. I thought this was done really well and that the storytelling aspect of the film was super unique. The film interwove the chronological ending of the film with the chronological beginning and used color or black and white to differentiate between them. The first scene of the movie is actually the ending and the last chronological scene of the film, and each following scene tells what happened that led up to the previous one. The color scenes were in reverse chronological order and from Leonard’s perspective, and each of these scenes were interwoven with black and white scenes of the actual beginning in normal chronological order. 

So, basically, we are seeing two stories, and for the duration of the film, trying to piece how they fit together. The way this was done was pure genius.

Overall, I liked the movie and would rate it 4/5 stars. It wasn’t my favorite Nolan flick, but I liked how, as with most of his films, you have to really pay attention and think, yet the ending is still a completely unexpected mind bender. If you’re a fan of Interstellar or Inception, but haven’t seen this one yet, consider checking it out. It’s currently available to stream for free on IMDbTV with ads.