Customer Reviews

Memento (Widescreen)

5 star:		(530)
4 star:		(110)
3 star:		(53)
2 star:		(37)
1 star:		(57)

 

 

Memento (2000)
Drama, Mystery, Thriller, 113 minutes
Directed by Christopher Nolan
Starring Guy Pearce, Joe Pantoliano and Carrie-Anne Moss

"What's the last thing you remember?
"My wife...dying."

I remember watching Memento on cable and buying it a few days later. It was such an original way of telling a story that I was excited to show it to my friends at the earliest opportunity.

They hated it.

The opening scene shows Leonard Shelby (Pearce) killing Teddy (Pantoliano), but that scene is actually how the story ends. Leonard suffered a head injury when his wife was murdered by intruders and hasn't been able to form short-term memories since the event. He remembers everything up to that point, such as who he is and what he did for a living, but can't build new memories.

What would it be like to wake up every day and wonder where you were? What are you supposed to be doing that day?

In order to place the viewer in a similar position, Nolan tells the story in reverse. We see events unfold and new information is introduced each time. The information changes our perceptions of the events we have already seen and the people we have already met. Who can Leonard trust? How can he keep the information readily available if he's going to forget everything?

Nolan actually tells two stories. One is in black and white and proceeds in normal chronological order. This tells the story of Leonard's life before the accident. He worked as an insurance investigator and one of the claimants, Sammy Jankis, had the same problem with his memory. A tattoo on Leonard's wrist tells him to remember Sammy Jankis, and he's able to because it happened before he suffered the head injury.

A second story shows Leonard's hunt for his wife's murderer. This time, Nolan tells it in color and uses reverse chronological order.

Are you with me so far? Good.

You can see why my friends hated the film. It requires patience and your full attention to understand what is going on. Furthermore, Leonard is an unreliable narrator, so we can't trust everything. Nolan presumably did this to show that Leonard can't trust his own thoughts.

In order to function at all, Leonard employs a series of devices to aid his memory. He also sticks to a routine as much as possible. He takes photos of his car, his motel, and people he meets. As he finds out information about people, he writes notes on the photos.

Teddy is either a crooked cop, a complete liar, or both. He claims to be helping Leonard look for his wife's killer, but he makes several attempts to borrow Leonard's car. When you see the closing scenes, you'll understand what his true motive may be.

Natalie (Moss) is also claiming to help Leonard by providing information. Unfortunately, she also has motives of her own.

Leonard doesn't know who to trust. He also doesn't know how long he's been trying to avenge his wife's death. Because of the nature of the narrative, we aren't even sure that Leonard hasn't already killed the murderer at some point in the past. Are Teddy or Natalie using him for some other purpose? Are they even who they say they are?

I've seen Memento at least twice a year since I first saw it. It has endless replay value and it's interesting to see some of the events unfold when you know the outcome. Nolan gets the little details right as well as the big ones. Notice how Leonard forgets which way the motel door opens and how he brushes his hand against a glass in a restaurant because he's forgotten that he put it there.

Each time I watch a Nolan movie I think it's the best thing he has ever done. Whether it's The Dark Knight, Inception, The Prestige, or Memento, he treats his audience with respect. Rather than spell out every little aspect of the story, he allows the audience to draw its own conclusion. That alienates some viewers, as it did with my friends, but the payoff is worth it if you are willing to pay full attention.

Otnemem (Memento) Is a powerful story of revenge following an Insurance Inspector (Guy Pierce) who witnesses his wife's rape and murder. However, when he tried to stop it he was knocked unconcience and suffered a head wound that kept him from making new memories. The last thing he does remember is her murder. Now he must bring justice to the one who did it. To remember things he must tatoo them to his body. A terrific Film for both Nolan and Pierce.

This is an awesome movie, a must-see for anyone who enjoys a story that requires some mental investment on the viewer's part. And this 2 DVD set has some great features on it (including the ability to watch the scenes in reverse...err...chronological order). However, the DVD menus are so unintuitive that they're really frustrating. It's amusing that they decided to model the menus after an aspect of the movie, but doing so makes it too easy to miss many of the features on the discs, or two difficult to find features you're looking for. Nearly all of the features are essentially Easter Eggs. Still, I wholeheartedly recommend this DVD set. There are many websites that expose DVD Easter Eggs, and most of them will tell you exactly how to get to the features on these two discs.

Strikingly original and gloriously film-noir, Memento is a rare film that finds the perfect marriage between substance and style without sacrificing the tension, drama, and humor in its well-written script. The first offering from writer-director Christoper Nolan, and adapted from one of this own short stories, Memento engages audiences of all levels in a murder mystery of the first caliber.

Leonard (Guy Pierce) is hot on the trail of the man who murdered and killed his wife. He, too, was injured in the attack, rendering him unable to record any new memories - everything fades after around 10 minutes. Although he remembers everything until he blacked out, including his wife lying dead on the floor, he has formed no new memories since that time. This unusual condition has obviously rendered his search somewhat problematic, and Leonard is forced to rely on scribbled notes, photographs, maps, and tattoos to attempt to piece together his investigation.

In what has been described alternately as a pedantic, pretentious film-school choice and a masterful way to tell a story, the story is told in 10-minute segments, starting at the END and working backwards. Therefore, the audience can piece things together in a way Leonard cannot, and our reality becomes totally different from the main characters'. In fact, one could make the case that Memento is a meditation on the meaning and reliability of memory in and of itself, but I'll leave that one to the scholars.

With its legions of fans, it's a wonder this DVD wasn't released with more extras on it. In fact, there are FOUR different versions of Memento on the world market, and all four DVDs have their strengths and weaknesses. The American NTSC-format Region 1 version, seen here, has an interview and the incredible Memento website on it (which, I should note, adds to the story, but only look at it after you've seen the movie, because it might spoil some things). The Canadian version of the film, also a Region 1 NTSC DVD by Alliance, has no extras but has an option where you can select the film's chapters in chronological order, allowing you to see the movie "backwards" (forwards, really). The French and Belgian version is Region 2 PAL, and lacks all the extras but has an option where you can actually play the film in chronological order, instead of having to go back to the chapter screen 48 times. And, last but not least, the planned UK Region 2 PAL release (slated to hit the streets on January 14, 2002) will have a director's commentary, the "play chronologically" feature, but none of the American version's extras.

This shouldn't surprise people, as Memento was released first in the UK and did significantly better there at the box office than it did here. However, unless you want to import a DVD from Europe - which requires a DVD player configured not only to play Region 2 discs, but one that can translate a PAL signal to an NTSC signal - the American version will be just fine. The picture and sound are great, and the chronological mode is basically, as a friend put it, a gimmick. And, with a movie as good as this, we can live without a commentary.

Rarely have I watched a film that demanded that I pay such rapt attention to detail. Its series of segments, progressively reveal more of what happened but in backwards order. I had to expend a lot of mental energy comparing the events in each segment and piecing together what I thought actually happened. This method of filming alone is challenging but especially so given the main character's mental limitations. It is worth energy to figure out though!

For those who don't know, "Memento" is a story of a man who loses his wife in a rape attack inside their home, pledging that he will track down a murderer for revenge and peace of mind. The main problem is that Lenny (Guy Peirce), after the attack, was left with a problem in that he cannot retain any long term memories. Well that's one brief summary of how to look at it, but there are others. Indeed this film is excellent and played with my emotions, emotions of sympathy, anger and questioning my own morals and judgments. Peirce is exceptional as the lead, and the characters that come into contact with him also give fine performances (notably Carrie-Anne Moss and Joe Pantoliano). Focusing on the problem of losing a memory after approximately 15 minutes, we begin to appreciate just how frustrating Lennys plight is.

The film is beautifully shot and the editing and photography is even better. The best part: the film starts at the end and works it way to a middle point. That's because when the film comes to its end you really don't know if it's the beginning since you don't know what Leonard (Guy Pierce) did before arriving at an isolated place. This film can really be seen as reminiscent of the film style of Film Noir. It uses black and white scenes to give that off as well as the characters in the film constantly sucking Leonard further down into this world where he has no idea who and what to believe, including himself and the things he's done. Not only that but all the characters, yes even Leonard who is our protagonist, has a dark side of human nature to them. And that's what Film Noir is, exposing the dark side of human nature. The film has such a great Psychological deepness and by all means breaks the conventional art that goes into filmmaking. It really was a shame this film wasn't nominated for best picture. It greatly deserved that award and Nolan greatly deserved best director for it. Bottom line: Flat-out brilliant film-making and story-telling. One of the best films I've ever seen. I don't throw high ratings around but this one deserves 5 stars.

Just effing brilliant. The type of movie you can watch over and over again, not necessarily to learn new things, but the very concept leads to thought-provoking inner dialogues about the nature of the self, the soul, time, and memory. The acting is fantastic, cryptic, as we aren't sure how much Leonard really knows about himself (and he doesn't know how much he knows either!) What role does his subconscious play in his actions? Has he recorded all that has happened to him, somewhere in his emotions? Do we even have a subconsious? What will his future hold? How can he live? A masterpiece that should have won some Oscars.

Everyone who rated this less than 4 stars was too dumb to figure out what was going on, so this movie requires at least a certain amount of intelligence.

The masterfull editing is what makes this film really shine. As most have already guessed, it's done so that the film is backwards. Why? So the viewer has the same short term memmory problem the main character does. He doesn't know why he's in a strange looking motel, and neither does the view. See? It makes sense. Fantastic film, the ending is the best too.

Memento is like nothing you have ever seen. That much I can garantee you. Guy Pierce suffers from a specialized form of amnesia where he no longer can make short term memories. His long term memory is intact right up to the incident which caused his condition...and his wife's death. Thus our swiss-cheese brained hero is seeking revenge for his wife, while his memory is wiped clean every ten minutes or so. Covered in tatoo's, pocket's full of polaroids with notes scribbled on them (such as a picture of what his car looks like, aptly labeled "Your Car") Pierce has to try and find the man responsible for the way his life is now while mixing with a great assorment of characters with no idea of how he met any of them or who he can trust. This is easily the best movie I saw this year and I highly recommend it.

To conclude, this movie rocks , although you may need to watch it a few times to fully grasp all the subtlties of what's going on.

The Limited edition version is by turns incredible rewarding and distressingly frustrating! I don't know who decided to make it in such a way, but I truly believe they need to rethink their strategy - not everyone has the patience to play games with a DVD each time they want to watch it, and those of us renting it from our local soul-destroying chain video store that shall remain nameless, don't get the inlay cards etc. leading to a puzzling night...

It challenges a lot of our assumptions of truth and memory and really forces us to home in on our own ideas of which narrative we believe, and should we trust the narrator.

Basically each disc has a set of psychiatric test questions that loop around, and depending on your answer offer you various bonus features.
Disc one isn't too hard to work out, but disc two can be prohibitively obstinate. Thank god then for the invention of the "Internet". Accessing this through a "Computer" will lead you to a bunch of fan sites that have maps and hints to guide you through the labyrinth, which does come off as being slightly rewarding.

The movie opens at the end and replays in short segments leading up to the beginning of the plot, while it alternates with black and white sections that go forward in time to the start of the real plot. The plot itself is dark and disturbing, yet tinged with a surprising amount of humor ("See, I have this condition...").

The main reason I picked up this DVD was the "alternate endings" feature on the back of the box. This turns out to also be slightly misleading. What you can get is 3 different directors commentaries over the ending, with three different ways to interpret the closing (or opening?!) scenes. I actually found this really cool, as each narrative presented by the director is presented as fact, and it's really cool to watch them all back to back with the thought "I'm being lied to!" in the back of your mind. That's pretty damn cool.

Very rarely a movie comes along that is so good it makes you rethink everything you once thought about movies. Memento is that kind of film.

The other special feature I was really looking forward to is the chance to see the whole movie in the correct sequence, which is also buried in Disc 2. This will certainly clear things up for anyone that didn't understand it the right way round, but I got kinda bored watching the straight version, possibly cos I'd just watched the "right" version the day before.
Anyway, memento will make you a better person and cause girls to fall at your feet. Not really, but you should go buy it anyway.

this movie was certainly different than most i have seen. i really liked the end, but with all of the different time-changes it got to be a bit confusing. i'd say its about 3 1/2 stars. it definitely makes you think and pay attention, though it's easy to get lost with everything going on.