Beginning with the end, Memento, put simply, is a revenge tale in reverse that maps out onetime claims investigator Leonard Shelby’s (Guy Pearce) path to kill the man who brutally raped and murdered his wife. The plot is not configured in this manner to merely show-off, though. There is a reason for during the attack on his wife, Leonard suffered a costly blow to the head which rid him of his ability to retain new memories. Alas, he’s forced to place what little trust he has in photos of people and places as well as personal notes and tattoos that serve as reminders with regard to his progression in the manhunt.
Memento is a slick yet sombre affair. A many-mirrored movie that’s designed to absolutely stump the viewer. It’s a cool and collected, often dark and sometimes light experience without a sense of time or place and without an air of fidelity or even resolution. It is, in short, an irresistible labyrinth and a bona-fide masterpiece of modern cinema that’s impossible to forget. There’s just so much to chew-on and so many reasons to re-visit the film over and over again.
Momento (2000), directed by Christopher Nolan, is released on blu-ray disc and DVD in the UK by Twentieth Century Fox, Certificate 15.
