Memento

What a weird film. The story is actually told backwards, so I got to know how everything was going to end right in the beginning, and yet I was entertained all along as it was gradually revealed to me why all those things happened. The filmmakers managed to create a somewhat paranoid atmosphere and bring suspense and the effect of deja-vu to an already resolved story. I even had a decent laugh in the moments before the main character realized what was going on. (03/02/2018)

Christopher Nolan's second feature clearly demonstrates his screenwriting genius and proves once again, unequivocally, that even the early works of this now great filmmaker are of great value. What’s more, I consider Memento unique out of Nolan's entire oeuvre, as it places considerable demands on the viewer, offers perfectly nuanced acting performances, and showcases highly suggestive direction. The pressure on the grey matter is immense and at times it took all I had to keep from completely unraveling all those cerebral threads; and yet the final impression (or rather the initial one?:)) is indescribable and I certainly cannot say that I was fascinated "only by the visual aspect and due to the difficulty of the script I gave up on any deeper understanding". The interpretation here is definitely not straightforward, but I think that was kind of the intention from the start. Maybe I'll see it from a different perspective the second time around, who knows. But it certainly won't affect my rating. (12/15/2013)

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)

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)

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)