Memento

     "Memento" is by far the best movie I've seen this year 2001, but I don't know if I would be saying this if I see all those movies I haven't been able to watch; maybe I would anyways. Maybe not one of the "best" ever, but the film is so incredibly original and uniquely made that just because of that it deserves to be a classic already.

Memento is not the kind of film you can give the plot away in a review, not even a briefly; just the basics, what you see in the trailer, otherwise you could be spoiled because of the weird nature of the film: Leonard Shelby (Guy Pearce) has lost his wife, she was raped and killed in their own house. He was hit and that caused him a hell of a problem: short-term memory loss, this means Leonard can remember thing only for a few minutes, then he will forget where he is or what he was doing; the only things he remembers completely is everything before the incident. There is also Teddy (Joe Pantoliano) and Natalie (Carrie Ann Moss), both characters seen in the trailer, but unfortunately I can't tell you what they're there for.

Enough said about that. The story is actually the less important thing here, and no, it's not bad at all, but it's the way the film was made that impressed the audience very, very much.

As stated in every review written about this film, it has the very rare characteristic of being presented backwards! Yes, the last scene goes first, then you see what happened before that, and then before that, and so on. It was amazing. Leonard also talked a lot about Sammy Jankis, a person he met through work some time before his accident; Sammy had the same desease, he couldn't make new memories. Sammy's story is introduced to the movie in a wonderful way, it just appears from time to time, with Lenny talking about it to someone through the telephone, and scenes of Mr. (Stephen Tobolowski) and Mrs. (Harriet Sansom Harris) Jankis and their problems.

The direction was masterful. I can't believe this is the work of one man (based on the short story written by his brother?), and I think Christopher Nolan is very creative and has a very unique mind, not many could have pulled off a job like this. I believe he will make some more great films in the future, they might or might not top Memento, but he sure has what it takes, this film is the living proof.

But I have not said everything yet. Now, most people will say the film is very complicated and makes you think really hard. Well, it certainly does. But the cool thing is, it's not really hard to understand what you're watching, if you have an average IQ you should be able to get the whole film; what you wont understand is what exactly happened. It's a bit hard to explain, what I mean is: You will finish watching the film, but you will think of much more than one explination for what happened, there are many possibilities, and each of them is possible; I've asked many people about it and most have different theories on what happened. I watched the film twice, but I got the same result, so it's not a matter of not understanding, not really. I'd like to quote a line from Roger Ebert's review of this film here: "Once is right for this movie. Confusion is the state we are intended to be in." Yup, I couldn't agree more with that statement.

Oh yeah, I almost forgot.. I can't give all the credits to the writer/director, the actors had a big part on the making of this film. I think Guy Pearce was nearly perfect for the role, he was great in every single scene, and he looks funny with that blond hair. Carrie Anne Moss was pretty good, I think she's more of an actress that what you can see in "The Matrix". And Joe Pantoliano, who I consider a great actor, once again didn't dissapoint me, he played his character very nicely.

You have to see to understand what it's all about, if you've read so far, please, watch this film, it's a masterpiece.

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