Memento (2000)

This was one that I had wanted to watch for a long time. It was the first film that brought attention to director Christopher Nolan ('Batman Begins', 'Dark Knight', 'The Prestige', 'Inception'). He also wrote the screen play for this psychological mind twister (a common theme in his work) that stars Guy Pierce as a man investigating his wife's murder.

The twist is that he has no short term memory and will forget things he learns if he didn't write them down, take Polaroid pictures of important people and places or tattoos vital information on his body.


Once you get used to his disability and the ways that he tries to remember what he is investigating and what he has learned about the crime, you get totally caught up in the story.

The tale's construction is an elegant device that I would describe as like walking a garden maze. You can recognize some paths but it takes time and experience and the combination of all the directions you remember to get out of the maze.

The story is also told in reverse. We see the end first and then as we go backwards in the story we see how all the clues and moments added up. I have rarely seen a movie that uses this technique so well.


In any of a thousand ways you can mess it up and lose the audience and story in one poorly construction moment. This never happens with Nolan. He so totally believes in his story that you find that as a viewer you are not taken for granted or treated as stupid. Nothing is over explained and that makes the experience a rewarding one.

This is one that you need to watch if you like intelligent filmmaking down in a unique way. To say anymore would be robbing you of the experience.