Overall Rating
  Awesome: 79.42%
Worth A Look: 13.33%
Average: 1.74%
Pretty Bad: 2.03%
Total Crap: 3.48%
18 reviews, 237 user ratings
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| Memento |
by Slyder
"A Smart, Clever, And Ingenious Flick, One Of The Best Films Of The Year."
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I was pressed by this community and the TV to see this movie, also through my gut. So I went to see it, and found it to be a great film. Some people have compared this movie to the Sixth Sense. It carries the same basic path, but the story unfolds differently, and of course, the story is different. But thanks to the cleverness of the it, we get to see for ourselves an interesting twist that makes us feel thrilled and surprised, and makes us talk about this movie even more. I personally though that I've seen one of the best films of the year thanks to it’s originality.Leonard Shelby (Guy Pearce) is an Insurance guy who's on the trail of a killer called John G., who murdered his wife and had badly injured Leonard when he tried to stop him. The injury: Brain damage, which later developed into short-term memory loss, which means he can't remember what he's been doing for the past 15 minutes. So he relies on pictures, notes on a pad, and tattoos to remember things and continue his investigation. And through his trail we get to meet two mysterious and complex people: Natalie (Carrie-Anne Moss), and Teddy (Joe Pantoliano), who are helping Leonard's investigation, or are they? At the same time, in a black and white mode, Leonard keeps talking on the phone to somebody, not only about his findings on the investigation but also about a client he once tried to help, called Sammy Janis (Stephen Tobolowsky) who had a similar problem like the one he's now suffering.
First of all, the plot is going backwards, in other words, were shown scenes that go on and they end, and then you’re shown other scenes that end where the previous one started. What, where, how, gurgle? But this helps a purpose. In my opinion, this part of the plot is a twist on your head, an exercise on your own memory, on how far can you remember things that are shown to you at first, and piece up the rest of the scenes that come before the previous action happened. It's like a Jigsaw puzzle, with the final piece being the key to it all. The black and white scenes go straightforward, and if you're smart, you'll notice that both segments will meet on a certain point, and give you the final piece. This is scriptwriting and filmmaking at its best, because thanks to this twist you're always on suspense, since you don't know what happened earlier and what are the things that made Leonard reach that conclusion. And furthermore with the condition Leonard is suffering, that just simply adds more fuel to the fire. You don't have to be a total brainy guy to figure this film out since the scripts ideas run smoothly enough to let you know in the end what you've been missing. The idea of the script is very simple, it just requires basic thought know what’s going on, and when the big one comes, you know what's going on up to that point, but what shocks you is that when the final part comes, you will know... and that's what makes the film great.
The script was fantastic and the directing was as great. A total hands down to the Noland brothers for this movie, which is a terrific piece of work. The performances were superb. Guy Pearce as the disoriented Leonard, is just plain great, and basically steals every scene he's in. Carrie Anne Moss and Joe Pantoliano are also great in their roles, and thanks to their believable performances, the film works even well. The rest of the supporting cast was also great, an all-around great film.In the end, I recommend this film to anyone, because it’s a great film to watch. The originality of the script plus the editing and the performances of the actors help this film work out in a great way. So in case you're tired of watching the Sixth Sense, then go see this one, so you can feel again the "Won't get fooled again but again got fooled anyhow" feeling.
 del.icio.us 
link directly to this review at http://efilmcritic.com/review.php?movie=4848&reviewer=235
originally posted: 05/06/01 04:18:26
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USA
16-Mar-2001 (R)
UK
N/A
Australia
12-Apr-2001 (M)
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