Memento

2000 movie

Rating: 17/20

Plot: A guy with no short-term memory tries to avenge his murdered wife.

This is one of the most well-done gimmicks that I've ever seen. You watch this and the only thing you really want to remember is that the movie's all backward and stuff. But when you really think about high tightly-structured it is, how well written, the gimmick becomes more than just a gimmick. If there was no reason for this story to be told in reverse chronological order, it wouldn't work. The reverse chronological order, however, accomplishes a couple things. One, it really helps put the audience in Guy's head. People with no short-term memory don't watch movies because there's no way they'd be able to follow the story and they'd bother people sitting beside them in the theater with endless questions. So the audience doesn't have any way of identifying with Guy Pearce's character. Although the backward thing doesn't exactly match what's going on in that onscreen head, it gives us a unique way of looking at the way a character with a rare condition sees the story. Second, it gives the plot and its characters some dimensions it wouldn't otherwise have. When I try to piece this together in my mind in chronological order, the characters and their motivations are completely different, and you see them in completely different ways. Those characters work, by the way, because of some solid performances. Pearce is great playing this strangely confident and paranoid figure, and when it all comes together at the end--by that, I'm referring to the beginning, of course--his work seems even better. Carrie-Anne Moss pulls off this sweet/bitchy dynamic extremely well, and it's a treat trying to figure out what all these mysterious looks she gives Pearce's character throughout this thing mean. She knows stuff, and you want to know it, too. And Pantoliano is always terrific playing one of his typical likable characters. A Pantoliano character is almost a walking spoiler alert, isn't it? And that's really about it for characters although I do like the pair--Stephen Tobolowsky and Harriet Sansom Harris--who play Mr. and Mrs. Jankis in the black and white flashbacks. And finally, I like how the backward story keeps you guessing in exactly the same way a regular mystery would. Only instead of "Is he going to solve the crime?" questions, you're asking, "Did he kill the right guy? or "Where did those scratches on his face come from?" or "How is he meeting these people?" Mystery's thick although the confusion's atypical. A nice ambient soundtrack that is not Brian Eno works well. I really had my doubts about whether or not this would hold up upon repeated viewings, and I still actually kind of have my doubts, but you can't question this thing's ability to intrigue and entertain.

Speaking of Nolan, I'm going to be watching those two Batman movies within the next couple weeks in preparation for the third Batman movie. I never did catch The Prestige, so I'll have to watch that one, too. You know, I might even watch Inception again. I don't have any interest in revisiting Insomnia or Following again, however.

6 comments:

  1. "Memento" does make you work harder than most films, but it is worth the effort. For one, it is a unique movie experience. For another, you get to see the very underrated Pearce and Pantoliano at their best. The situation and construction really make you pull for Pearce's character. The film has style and great intelligence and gets a 19 from me.

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  2. It's weird how you pull for Pearce's character. By the end, you realize you've been pulling for a psycho which makes this a little chilling.

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  3. just watched rewatched this last night. the first time i watched it, it kind of shook me up. the whole self identity of who are we really. what do we all tell ourselves to get through the day etc. the 2nd viewing was no different and i had forgotten enough of the plot that i still had fun linking the "facts" together. i am a little concerned for cory for rooting for pearce(who did an incredible job and was soo hunky).
    this was well casted and well acted. its a shame it took me 15 years to rewatch this.

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  4. You weren't pulling for his character, at least the first time you watched it? A movie with a gimmick like this could easily not work as well with subsequent viewings. Like, The Sixth Sense which I actually haven't even bothered seeing again. This one, I think, actually is better the more you see it.

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  5. how many times have you seen it?
    having just seen it i could watch it again soon. i knew and know the outcome but the journey is still fun. love the script, the acting, the casting, and the theme.

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  6. I think I've seen Memento only three times. The first two were pretty close to back-to-back though, then I saw it again whenever I wrote this.

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