Film Review: Memento (2000)

Christopher Nolan is one of the most celebrated film makers of today and arguably the first one that earned such lofty reputation in 21st Century. Important stepping stone towards that was his feature debut, 2000 thriller Memento.

The script was originated as the idea by Nolan’s brother Jonathan, later turned into short story “Memento Mori”. The protagonist, played by Guy Pearce, is Leonard Shelby, insurance investigator in Los Angeles. His wife was raped and murdered so he infiltrates Los Angeles underworld in order to find perpetrators of the crime and get his revenge. Shelby, however, has a serious problem – he received a brain injury during the attack that claimed his wife’s life and, as a result, became affected by anterograde amnesia. While he can remember any event before attack anything anything afterwards vanishes from his memory after 5-10 minutes. Shelby, however, isn’t discouraged by his inability to remember events or people he had met half hour earlier. He fights amnesia with handwritten notes, Polaroid photos and even has most important information tattooed on his body. Leonard, however, isn’t sure whether the two people that he meets during investigation – mysterious man named Teddy (played by Joe Pantoliano) and attractive woman named Natalie (played by Carrie-Ann Moss) – are his helpers or adversaries that try to manipulate him.

The idea for Memento was quite original and refreshing, but it also brought a serious challenge to Nolan. He tried to show the events from the perspective of the protagonist affected by strange condition that made him lost in time. He also tried to create suspense by having protagonist unsure whether the person with whom he had interaction with was an old friend or enemy met few minutes earlier. Nolan solved this problem through relatively simple and elegant way, somewhat close to the technique used by Quentin Tarantino in Pulp Fiction - non-linear narration. The scenes are displayed in reverse chronological order and explain how the protagonist found himself in particular situation. Protagonist is unaware of that and so is the audience, forced to find answers in the past instead of the future. Nolan tries mix the general plot with series of flashbacks that try to explain Leonard’s condition through the story of Sammy Jenkins (played by Stephen Tobolowsky), man who had the same condition as Leonard and whom Leonard, while being insurance investigator, tried to reveal as fraudster.

The concept works flawlessly in Memento and Nolan tries to remain true to it and refuses to deliver conventional happy ending and instead leaves many questions unanswered, thus allowing audience to draw its own conclusions. That ending, on the other hand, looks a little bit banal and somewhat un-cathartic in comparison with the rest of the film. On the other hand, Nolan shows superb film making skill and is helped by formidable cast that includes Guy Pearce in his best role since L.A. Confidential, accompanied by Carrie Ann-Moss and Joe Pantoliano who play characters very different from those played in The Matrix. Made with relatively small budget, but well-written, well-directed and well-acted, Memento can be recommended not only to the fans of director who made so many great films, but also to those viewers who like to use brain while watching Hollywood thrillers.

RATING: 8/10 (+++)

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