Originally written July 25, 2012

This movie is truly one of a kind right here. This is the second movie made by acclaimed director Christopher Nolan, before he got famous for his Batman movies. While I haven’t seen all of his movies, so far I’ve never seen a Chris Nolan movie that I didn’t like. And Memento is one of those really memorable movies.

We’re shown the life of our main character, Leonard, who now has a short term memory problem. Leonard’s wife was raped and killed, and since the man who did it bashed his head in, that’s the last memory Leonard has. After that point, he can’t make new memories. He’ll literally have a conversation with someone and then not remember it a few minutes later. Still, Leonard is determined to find the man who killed his wife, and he goes about this by tattooing facts and clues on his body and taking pictures and notes of what he knows.

It’s such an original idea, and it’s executed so well. It’s really unique to have a main character who doesn’t remember anyone he meets, but is still determined to do something. Also, the film is shown in a unique fashion that took me a little bit to get used to. At the beginning of the movie, we’re shown Leonard killing the man that murdered his wife. Then, it cuts to a black and white scene of Leonard talking to someone on the phone, and this explains some plot exposition. Then, the next scene shows how Leonard got to the spot of him killing the man, then a scene of more black and white plot exposition, then a scene of how Leonard got to where he was in the previous scene, and it keeps going on like that. The movie literally goes backwards, and so as it progresses we find out everything might not have been as it seemed in the beginning (or rather, the end).

Overall, Memento was just an amazing movie. I always like it when I see movies that are different, and this is a great example of originality and uniqueness. There were a few parts of the movie that tended to irk me a bit, but these moments aren’t numerous. If you’re looking for something different, I really recommend Memento.

4.5/5