Genre Grandeur March Finale – Memento (2000)

For the Genre Grandeur Finale for the month of March – Thriller, I present you with my review of Memento (2000) by Christopher Nolan.

Next months genre is Rom/Com, so please send me your reviews as soon as possible to romcom@movierob.net

Now on to the review…

“We all lie to ourselves to be happy.” – Leonard Shelby

Number of Times Seen – At least 10 times (twice in theater, DVD and 27 Mar 2014)

Brief Synopsis – A man who has no short term memory tries to find the man who killed his wife.

My Take on it –I recall reading about this movie 2 months before it even came out when it was featured on IMDB as movie of the day.

I was intrigued and couldn’t wait for it to come out.

My friends and I actually went and saw it twice in theater because we were so blown away the first time.

Anyone who knows me and my take on movies, knows that I have no problem with non-linear movies as long as they are still done properly.

This movie (for those of you who have been living in outer space for 15 years) is told in two sequences – one is backwards and the other is forward where the two only meet at the very end of the movie (or beginning) depending on how you look at it)

I actually own the DVD and it gives the option to watch the movie in sequence which was quite an experience.

There are so many things to love about this movie, but what I love the most about it is that it is both a succinct story and it leaves the interpretation so ambiguous that there are no clear answers as to what really happens and it leaves the interpretation open to every viewer.

Director and co-writer Christopher Nolan himself has always refused to give clear succinct answers as to the truths of the story in order to keep the debate going even 14 years later. (The IMDB FAQ sections is one of the longest I’ve ever come across.)

I have had so many conversations with friends over the years about this movie and I have my own personal interpretation, but in the end, it doesn’t matter because even interpretation is possible because of the elegant way this was written, directed, acted and ultimately edited.

This was Nolan’s first big film and you can see his genius in every scene.

Bottom Line – Amazing movie.  Love the non-linear storytelling. Watching this, one can clearly see even 14 years ago that Christopher Nolan was a genius filmmaker. Highly Recommended!

Rating – Oscar Worthy

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