Movie Review: Memento

The movie Memento is one of the best Psychological thriller movies out there.

There are three main characters. Leonard starring Guy Pearce, a man who suffers from a short term memory loss, Teddy (Joe Pantoliano), and Natalie (Carrie-Anne Moss), a woman Leonard met and promised to help him get his vengeance. The narrator of the story is Leonard, and because of his condition we can’t say that he is a reliable one. Throughout the movie, he keeps on repeating the sentence “I have this condition, you can’t trust someone with this condition” so he is basically telling us that he is unreliable. The movie is in the present and the events happen in ordinary setting, Motel room, Natalie’s house, and an abandoned house.

A simple man who suffers from short-term-memory loss seeks vengeance from the man who killed his wife and destroyed his life, that’s how the story seems at first. The first scene of the movie is of Leonard holding a polaroid picture which is part of his system to keep track of his memory, a man shot on the floor with blood all over the place and a bullet, then the Polaroid pictures gets undeveloped, and everything else moves backward. The second scene, which is in black and white, Leonard is in a motel room, confused, asking himself questions and trying to track back his memory. Most of the black and white scenes of the movie seem to be flashbacks of Leonard talking on the phone and telling his story, justifying his actions as if he is trying to reason with his own brain.

As the movie goes on, most people would think that the movie progression is backward. So at the beginning they see the main character Leonard shoots someone. Later on, the plot twists and the movie looks like pieces of distorted memories are cutting their way through each other.

One of the best scenes of the movie is when Leonard looses his 15 mins memory and stares at himself, tracing his tattoos, surprised and terrified at the same time. Everytime to him is a first time.

Overall, I think it is a great movie, a well done mind puzzling piece by Christopher Nolan (Inception director). It’s a simple story that was presented in a brilliant way which makes it seem impossible to get the pieces of the puzzle together until you watch the movie again. However, you would still feel that you are watching it for the first time.