Movie Review - Memento (2000 United States)
A beautiful puzzle inside a cypher, wrapped in a chimera
This is an astonishing film: complex, textural, breathtaking! It’s also structured in a remarkably convoluted way and you may find, as I did, that only on the second watching do all the pieces fall into place in this most intricate of puzzles.
Watch this terrific movie right now:
Watch the trailer:
There's an edge of sheer terror in the basic plot premise — the lead character has a brain injury and is unable to form new memories — since we are all frightened of losing our memories. Watching the protagonist trying desperately to hold on to his — taking photos, jotting down notes and having the most significant clues tattooed on his body — resonates with anyone who's ever temporarily lost a set of keys and wondered if that's it, the start of a world trapped in the present, without the sweet (and bittersweet) past.
That terror escalates, because he's trying to do something of much greater weight than find those pesky keys. He’s on a grim quest to find his wife’s murderer, a mission made impossibly difficult by his utter inability to recall anything that he has done.
Very few films have so completely carried me away with them as this one has. Highly recommended.
Copyright © Roberta Lee 2012. All rights reserved.
(I am an artist and the author of the Suburban Sprawl series of novels as well as two nonfiction books. Find out more about my work at RobertaLeeArt.com.)
Genre: Genre: Mystery & Suspense, Drama
Rated: R – See Full Rating
Running Time: 2 hr.
In Theaters: Sep 5, 2000
On DVD: Sep 4, 2001
Box Office:$23.8M
Distributor:Newmarket Films
Directed By: Christopher Nolan
Written By: Christopher Nolan, Guy Ritchie
Cast:
Guy Pearce - Leonard, Leonard Shelby
Carrie-Anne Moss - Natalie
Joe Pantoliano - Teddy
Stephen Tobolowsky - Sammy
Mark Boone Jr. - Burt
Harriet Sansom Harris - Mrs. Jankis
Callum Keith Rennie - Dodd
