Memento Reviews

(MU) Nolan envuelto en su gravedad ,pero de corto término, creando una narrativa a partir de eso, actores sin fortaleza (Pantoliano es el más solvente) pero hacen que destaque más su dirección de acción....

Christopher Nolan has always struck me as a very talented film-maker, and most of his films are ones that have impressed me a lot. Even weaker efforts, where his ambition can get in the way, have a good deal to admire. His films are all impeccably crafted technically, and often entertaining and thought-provoking, also knowing how to get good performances out of talented casts.

'Memento' was not his first film, having directed 1998's 'Following', but has been considered by many the film that rose him to fame and brought the world's attention to him. Cannot disagree with this, and also that not only is 'Memento' his first great success but seventeen years later it gets my vote as his best film. It really makes one think hard about what is happening, crucial in a film where a lot of concentration is needed, without being treated like you are an idiot or dumber than you are. It is also one of the few Nolan films where it was difficult to find anything to fault.

As always with Nolan, 'Memento' is a wonderfully made film. The cinematography is slick and the production values in general are suitably gritty and audacious , with some scenes strongly reminiscent of film noir (as a fan of film noir that was great to see). David Julyan's synthesised (something that could have sounded tacky but actually adds a lot to the atmosphere) score makes very clever and dynamic use of distinct sounds, oppression, yearning, loneliness and loss having a haunting but also affecting vibe, the feeling of being lost adrift being perfectly captured.

Nolan directs impeccably, not letting his ambition get in the way of the storytelling, while the script is smart, thought-provoking and intricate without trying too hard and treating the audience with respect. The pacing is taut while deliberate, and the length, after seeing some later efforts that have suffered from over-length and over-ambition ('Interstellar'), was ideal.

It is the story that makes 'Memento' Nolan's most fascinating film, with a unique non-linear, time-reversed structure with two converged time-lines. That sounds on paper confusing but with Nolan telling the story in an intricate, tense and atmospheric way (meaning that he takes his time telling the story) it makes perfect sense, with beautifully interwoven use of thematic motifs of memory, guilt, perception, self-deception and grief and a stunningly moving ending that one does not expect.

Guy Pearce is astonishing and give one of his career's best performances, don't think from personal view that he's been as good as this since. He gets excellent support from particularly Joe Pantoliano and even Carrie-Ann Moss.

Overall, a brilliant film and a contender (my personal vote certainly) for Nolan's best film. 10/10 Bethany Cox

Ok The story can be confusing to very confusing
even so it's interesting and had well-made nut twists
in some scenes I could leave you surprised
which makes the movie little by little more interesting
Telling that the movie start well
It was a bit boring in some way but these mistakes were minimal

the music was good and look good with what was going on with the movie

the characters were good and gave ideas of what was happening
also their respective actors did well

So Memento I can say a great movie that he did well in the aspects and Recommended only if you see it you should take care of what happens

but for now I can give you the highest classification
highly recommended

The deepest Christopher Nolan film I have ever seen filled with the most multi-layered narrative structure in any film. One of my personal favorites due to its amazing value of seeing it over and over again and not get tired of it.

'Memento' has overtaken 'The Shawshank Redemption' as my all time favorite movie

'Memento' repeatedly goes back and forwards and has a story about a man Leonard who lost his memory after a head injury and he wants to avenge his wife which involves in tattooing his body in order to remember everything

There's a great cast (Guy Pearce, Carrie-Anne Moss, Joe Pantoliano, Mark Boone Junior) and a few funny sequences

Great acting, great story, a few funny sequences and great directing make 'Memento' a cult classic, it is just my all time favorite movie! And the ending just makes you wonder "How can it end there?"

There is so many great things to talk about this movie but I have decided to leave this review spoiler-less. Either way this is one of those films that is great to watch when you have barely a clue about what the film is about. So if you are even slightly interested in checking out this film, go check out because you will not regret it. This is a spectacular film that can be watched, analyzed, rewatched, and provide an overall smart and intriguing experience.

The actors did an exceptional job in bringing this extraordinary script to life. As the movie goes along, you have trouble believing who should be trusted and who should not as more of the plot is revealed. Since the film doesn’t give definite answers to who is right and wrong, it is left up to the viewer to decide on the overall outcome which has points that could lead to either side. Thus, Memento is a film that is great to rewatch and analyze.

If you have not guessed already, I absolutely loved watching this movie. This may be my favorite Christopher Nolan film I’ve seen so far. This is a smart and engaging experience that really showed the great potential that Nolan has a filmmaker which was further proven by his later works. However, the directing and story isn’t the only good parts of this film.

I've watched Batman Begins and Following, so I already know that Nolan loves to have non-linear storytelling in his movies. This is probably the pinnacle example of a non-linear story done right. Many people believe Memento is a film that plays backwards: starting with the end and ending with the start. That is only half-true as there are actually two storylines going on in Memento: the one that does go backwards (which is done in color) and another that goes forwards (which is done in black-and-white). The movie ends chronologically in the middle of the story but this is the best and most interesting way to tell the story.

Christopher Nolan has made a name for himself among the great filmmakers for his recent work on the spectacular Dark Knight Trilogy and Inception. So, I decided to take the opportunity and check out one of his very first successes with the non-linear noir thriller, Memento.

Memory - it is one of the key elements that separates human beings from animals. It is one of the basic building blocks of personality. Who we are is shaped as much by our experiences as by our environment. Memory can also be unreliable, not to mention easily influenced. Ask three people to describe the same event, and none of those accounts will be the same. But, although memories are skewed by perspective, they are critical to the human experience. Memento is very much concerned with all aspects of memory, especially the manipulation of it, and this endlessly fascinating, wonderfully open-ended motion picture will be remembered by many who see it as one of the best films of the year.

When I initially saw Memento at the 2001 Sundance Film Festival, where it played in competition, I recognized this as a shoo-in for a spot on my year's end Top 10 list. There's no way this film could miss. Had it been released last year, it would have landed in the #1 or #2 position (right ahead of or behind Requiem for a Dream). This is a great motion picture, and, as an added bonus, it has a tremendous "replayability", meaning that subsequent viewings are almost as rewarding as the first. The only downside is that, with a small distributor like Newmarket Capital Group, it may be difficult to find, especially for those who don't live near major metropolitan areas.

Memento stars Austalian actor Guy Pearce (one of the crossdressers in The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert and the "straight" guy L.A. Confidential) as Leonard Shelby, a former insurance investigator and crime victim who is trying to find the man who raped and murdered his wife (Jorja Fox). His goal is simple - he wants revenge through execution. Nothing less will satisfy him. But there's a small matter that complicates Leonard's investigation. He has no short term memory. During the attack that ended his wife's life, Leonard suffered brain damage. Now, although his long-term memory is fine, he can't remember any recent events. He can meet the same person a hundred times and won't know their name or who they are. To combat his condition, Leonard relies upon a series of annotated Polaroid snapshots - not exactly the ideal tool by which to seek out a killer who even the police can't locate. Along the way, Leonard is aided (or perhaps hindered) by the ubiquitous Teddy (Joe Pantoliano), who is always on hand to offer advice, and he becomes involved with the mysterious Natalie (Carrie-Ann Moss), whose motives may not be as straightforward as they initially appear to be.

Memento doesn't stop with a great premise. In fact, what really distinguishes this film is its brilliant, innovative structure. Nolan has elected to tell the story backwards. He starts at the end and finishes near the beginning. The main narrative is presented as a series of three-to-eight minute segments, each of which ends where the previous one began. A second thread, which starts at an unspecified time in the past and moves forward to intersect with the main storyline, is used to buffer the "reverse" segments as well as to provide background information. (It also tells the important "Sammy Jankis" story, which becomes increasingly important the deeper we get into the film.) Although this approach might at first seem confusing, it doesn't take long to get used to it, and to understand how well it works with this material.

By presenting events in Memento backwards, Nolan allows us to get into the mindset of the main character. Like Leonard, we don't have a clear indication of what happened before the current segment of time. We know some things from the past, but not the recent past. Like him, we are presented with numerous cryptic clues, some of which may mean something other than what they initially appear to represent. And, although it might seem that an approach which reveals the story's conclusion in the first five minutes would lack tension, that's far from the case. Memento builds to a surprising yet completely logical finale, and there's plenty of suspense along the way to keep the viewer riveted.

Those who enjoyed the dubious pleasure of piecing together the plot of The Sixth Sense in retrospect will be delighted by Memento, which only reveals the entire landscape when the end credits start rolling. Unlike The Sixth Sense, however, Memento does not rely upon an easily-predicted twist ending to give the storyline meaning. This movie is constructed as a series of clever and logical revelations. It builds to the final scene rather than attempting to ambush us. In addition, since many aspects of Memento can be interpreted in more than one way (for example, during one critical conversation, it's up to each audience member to determine whether or not Teddy is telling the truth - Nolan does not offer a "definitive" answer), it's possible for one movie-goer to have a completely different vision of the film's backstory than the person sitting next to him/her.

In some ways, Memento can almost be described as anti-Groundhog Day. (The presence of Stephen Tobolowsky in supporting roles in both movies strengthens the connection.) Both pictures toy with timelines and memory, but, while Groundhog Day re-treads one period of time, constantly re-shaping recent history, Memento represents the past as a vacuum. Bill Murray's character in the 1993 film has multiple memories of a single time period. Here, Leonard has none. Another movie that comes to mind when discussing Memento is the Dana Carvey comedy Clean Slate. The two films have pretty much the same premise, but, while Clean Slate does little with it, Memento draws every ounce of potential from this rich well.

Lead actor Guy Pearce gives an astounding performance as a man struggling to avoid being manipulated in a world where he can easily become anyone's pawn. It's a tight, thoroughly convincing performance. Able support is provided by Carrie-Anne Moss, who is quickly moving far beyond her label as the "Matrix Babe", and character actor Joe Pantoliano (the newest addition to the cast of "The Sopranos"). But the real star here is Nolan, and the way he has edited this masterful thriller into its final format.

Every festival has a defining film. Sometimes it wins awards; sometimes it doesn't. For Sundance 2001, Memento was that movie. Despite its diversity of genres, the festival couldn't boast anything better; now, in the bleak movie-going climate of early spring, Memento is poised to breathe life back into art houses and independent theaters that have been as stung as multiplexes by mediocre fare. For those who love films and don't mind endings that don't wrap everything into a tidy package, Memento is not to be missed, even if you have to make a long trip to reach a theater showing it.

Before Christopher Nolan made himself synonymous with Batman, he directed this number 1 flick of its time, Memento, the modern example of mindf*** and neo-noir. Memento works like an intricate embroidered pattern, everything stitched perfectly with expert hands. Don't you just love the feeling that you just saw something that was beyond your thinking capability and something just out of your hand's reach? 80% of the fun watching a film like this lies in how much you understood of it. The remaining 20% is entertainment, which is not really important. I'm not gonna go in the obvious facts of the movie, you can understand that from other members' reviews or by watching it yourself. Anyway, it is such a well-made non-linear film that it very well could be the greatest non-linear film ever. Finally, a film that not only makes you rack up your brains but actually makes you wanna get deeper into the shown subject or take a 2-minute interest in it. Not a bad thing, I say. Since I take a rather morbid interest in these things, I kinda understood it on the very first try and I think I'm able to place the film in correct chronological order and come up with solutions to the loop-holes and the psychological level in all the major characters. I just need to see it one more time tomorrow to corroborate with what I understand, or think I understand. Mind you, it's not Donnie Darko, to which the answers are obvious, Memento is much deeper than that, more than just one person. It is about identity; lack of it, or several of it.

Anyway, Guy Pearce was Christopher Nolan's first Christian Bale. It's a wonder why Nolan never bought back Pearce in any of his other movies. The cast of Memento is undeniably the best cast Nolan has ever chosen for his film, no kidding. Everyone were convincing and perfect in their characters. Take Joe Pantoliano as Teddy for example: He will always remain the supporting actor, but a great one at that (check out The Matrix and The Fugitive). He managed to bring realism to his character. Then we have Carrie Anne Moss as Natalie. She is one of my favourite actresses and this is one of her best roles to date. She brings a level of mysteriousness to her character alongside realism. Now take Stephen Tobolowsky as Sammy Jankins. In his limited screen-time, Stephen manages to grab your attention and etches himself in your mind. Then of course we have Guy Pearce as Leonard Shelby, one of the damn best movie characters out there. The thing is that Nolan has a good eye for choosing the perfect actor / actress for a certain role. Guy Pearce looks both an ordinary citizen and someone who you wouldn't see walking down the street everyday, an important VIP, a secret agent maybe. The interesting combination provided by Pearce made Leonard Shelby more than just a movie character, more than just a person, a person we hold in our back of our minds and he embodied it masterfully. Nolan should cast him again in a film of his.

Anyway, Memento is a thinking film and not for lazy couch potatoes. If you can't understand the film, try to.

9.0/10

Probably Christopher Nolan’s best-known work before he directed The Dark Knight. It tells the tale of Leonard who, after a traumatic head injury, can no longer make long-term memories. But this is a very clever film because the whole story is told in reverse-chronological order with black and white segments peppered between scenes of a telephone conversation between Leonard and a mystery man. Watching this, you are as confused and suspicious as Leonard is because you can never be sure if you’ve met someone before or if this person is taking advantage of you. All we can do is trust Leonard and his notes, which isn’t much at all, as he often admits to himself. Leonard becomes a tool for vengeance with his one goal tattooed on his chest—John G. raped and murdered my wife. Find him and kill him. This is a very successful and cerebral film that examines the fallibility of memory and the limits of vengeance. Seek it out.

Nowadays Christopher Nolan is known and highly respected for the overrated "Inception" and highly popular 'Batman' re-imaginings. Back in 2000 he made a lesser-known film called "Memento," which actually outshines some of his recent work.

"Memento," which was his second full-length feature, was based on a short story called 'Memento Mori' by his brother, Jonathan Nolan. Leonard Shelby (Guy Pearce) is revealed as an unreliable narrator, and you have to take what he says a face value.

Hit on the head during an attack on him and his wife, Leonard has no short term memory. It's not amnesia, he explains, but he probably won't remember their conversation in a few minute's time. Actually, it's a specific kind of amnesia, called Anterograde amnesia.

Although it can be implausible at times, "Memento" is no cheap soap opera, nor a cheap exploitation of it's subject matter. Leonard cannot remember anything that occurs after the accident. In order to create 'new' memories, he writes notes or tattoos details on his skin. On his hand is printed 'remember Sammy Jankis,' and a sideplot reveals the sad story of an older man with his condition.

Leonard's mission is to find and kill the men who raped his wife and caused his head injury. He is helped by a suspicious, flippant cop named Teddy (Joe Pantoliano) and Natalie (Carrie-Anne Moss,) a manipulative she-b*tch whose drug dealer boyfriend is recently missing. He finds neither of them totally trustworthy, and must rely on himself to find the perpentrators. But can he?

The film is cleverly structured and told in reverse, so that you gradually move on to the earlier events in the story. Guy Pearce, a slightly more inconspicuous actor, was picked out by Nolan out of superstars like Brad Pitt. He does a good job, showing Leonard's confusion and resolve, although he remains not a compelling as Ralph Fiennes in David Cronenberg's similarly mind-bending thriller "Spider."

"Memento," in it's darkness and ambiguity, can easily pass as film noir. Another noir-ish element is the dark developments of it's characters. Even Leonard's beloved wife is revealed to not be all she seems. Although one of Nolan's earlier works and not a cinema-packer like "The Dark Knight," "Memento" deserves a wide viewership and stands as a capable thriller with an outstanding twist.