Memento

This amazingly original thriller was a truly unique experience. I don’t remember ever exercising my brain so much. It’s one of those few films that can never put anyone to sleep, and although it made me pretty tired, I couldn’t go to sleep after it, it makes you think even after it has finished. And I can’t avoid watching it again. Magnificent. (07/29/2008)

Brilliant! Without doubt, this is the only film that would make more sense than the usual if you watched it from the end to the beginning. But then it would be a only boring and routine crime drama instead of a perfect example of smart filmmaking with an excellent script and a totally unpredictable ending (well, beginning). Guy Pearce, a total unknown to me, shines and Christopher Nolan gets more bonus points – and a lot of them! (10/20/2011)

A riveting essay for dyed-in-the-wool theorists of film narratology? Above all, a brilliant film with everything that a quality thriller must include. The performances of Guy Pearce, Carrie-Anne Moss and Joe Pantoliano are precise, lively, perfectly fitting to the characters. The main star, however, is Jonathan Nolan, who gives a lesson in both screenwriting and directing. The move to bring the viewer closer to the perspective of the main character (i.e., the perspective of quickly forgetting the past story) by telling the story from the end is excellent, but the real delicacy is its portrayal. Nolan has an incredible win here with the construction of Memento, sending small clues around the fiction world that the viewer can hardly realize in the initial disorientation, and therefore has good reason to return to the film. The ending (actually the beginning) is very confusing, but it corresponds exactly to the trick of subjective vision through the eyes of the main character. The relativity of the reminders and "truth" of the past is portrayed par excellence. But the most entertaining thing about Memento is the detective level, which the viewer has to reconstruct so laboriously that you get blisters from the turning of the narrative stream and sweat breaks out on your forehead. Memento deserves five stars for the blisters and for the sweat, and the nickname of one of the most interesting films of recent years. (04/11/2005)

Narrative excellence where the inverted form of narration is the means, not the purpose. Nolan, in his first overseas outing, gives credit to his favorite properties (the man still wears his wedding ring after losing his wife) and teases with simple and economical filmmaking, where the characters and the plot play the primary role, where watching them is a challenging sport, and where even a moment's inattention can leave you in the dark. I'm fascinated by how, despite knowing the "good" ending, Nolan puts the pieces of the puzzle together impressively, with the reverse form creating tension even more strongly than traditional chronology. Who knew that this same person would one day make the most distinctive comic book trilogy and be able to afford to make spectacular sci-fi without using green screens, but... in retrospect, it feels like a deliberate journey by a purposeful filmmaker, just like this film. (10/16/2016)

One of my most beloved movies. The main pros have been listed here hundreds of times, but what I definitely have to mention is one of the best movie resolutions of all time. The fact that many or perhaps most misunderstood it, in my opinion, is based on the fact that Leonard's final/initial decision is completely outside the mindset of the standard American hero and thus hard to digest. Guy Pearce also proves an excellent choice, his resignedly confused expressions certainly matching the film's overall deliberate bewilderment. The absence of an Oscar for the screenplay should be a crime. I guess the Academy didn't get the film either. (07/19/2010)