Memento Review
by Bob Bloom (bobbloom AT iquest DOT net)April 27th, 2001
Memento (2000) 4 stars out of 4. Starring Guy Pearce, Carrie-Anne Moss, Joe Pantoliano, Mark Boone Junior, Stephen Tobolowsky and Jorja Fox. Screenplay by Christopher Nolan based on a short story by Jonathan Nolan. Directed by Christopher Nolan. Rated. R.
Memento is a story for serious filmgoers, those who have the stamina to focus on what is happening on the screen.
Memento is a cinematic jigsaw puzzle, turn away for a moment and you might miss a clue. This is a feature in which the audience is as much in the dark as the protagonist.
Leonard Shelby (Guy Pearce) is a former insurance investigator suffering from short-term memory loss inflicted the night his wife was raped and murdered. Leonard uses notes, tattoos and pictures to hunt down the man responsible for shattering his life.
Yet how do you know who's your friend and who's your enemy when you can't remember meeting them 10 minutes earlier?
Director-screenwriter Christopher Nolan, who adapted the script from a short story written by his brother, Jonathan, begins at the end and works his way backwards. The film opens with a bang and the viewer then traces what led Leonard to that moment.
Leonard is like a walking ghost, explaining his condition to everyone he meets, not realizing he has met these people before and already filled them in on his mental state.
This is a film in which you cannot really describe what transpires. You simply go along for the ride, watching as Leonard tries to put together the pieces of his life.
Memento is a most original and arresting feature. It is audience-involvement cinema, in which the viewer plays detective along with Leonard. Your allegiances shift from scene to scene as more and more of Leonard's past gets filled in. No one is whom they seem to be.
As the movie progresses ó or is it regresses? ó you question your perception of events as well as motivations.
Pearce gives a dynamic performance as a man constantly in a fog, relying on snapshots, scraps of papers and clues tattooed to his body as he attempts to reconstruct his life.
Carrie-Anne Moss is cynical and weary as the bartender who becomes involved in Leonard's quest.
Also on hand is that wonderful character actor Joe Pantoliano (best known as the turncoat in The Matrix, and currently seen as the fierce Ralphie on HBO's The Sopranos). Pantoliano's Teddy is a wise-cracking individual who's involvement with Leonard is suspect.
Director Nolan does a masterful job of keeping the audience in his vise. He grabs you from the outset and leads you through his mental maze.
Memento is a movie that has to be seen from the beginning. Miss one scene and nothing else will make sense. It is a masterful piece of filmmaking, one of the cleverest and original works to hit the screen in a long time.
If you like puzzles, then Memento will floor you. This is not for those who indulge in mindless action. This is a thinking person's feature that gives you much to ponder.
It's a gem.
Bob Bloom is the film critic at the Journal and Courier in Lafayette, IN. He can be reached by e-mail at [email protected] or at [email protected]. Other reviews by Bloom can be found at www.jconline.com by clicking on golafayette.
Bloom's reviews also can be found on the Web at the Internet Movie Database site: http://www.imdb.com/M/reviews_by?Bob+Bloom
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