Certification. 15
Director. Christopher Nolan
Cast. Jorja Fox, Carrie-Anne Moss, Joe Pantoliano, Guy Pearce.
Rating. 83%
For only his second film, Christopher Nolan's Memento is an intricate, confident and stylish neo-noir. Memento is assured as anything he has subsequently produced.
Guy Pearce plays Leonard Shelby, a former investigator for an insurance company, who is hell-bent on finding (and killing) the man that raped and murdered his wife (Jorja Fox). This objective would appear hampered by the fact that Shelby has no short-term memory. To combat his condition Shelby relies upon a series of annotated Polaroids and tattoos to retain important pieces of information. Guy Pearce gives an impressive performance as a man struggling to avoid being manipulated by the very people he is forced to trust. It is undoubtedly an interesting premise.
Beyond an interesting premise, what elevates Memento is director Christopher Nolan's innovative narrative structure. In essence, Nolan endeavours to tell the story backwards - the opening scene is the film's climax and the film concludes at the beginning. The main narrative is relayed as a series of repetitive, but progressive segments, each of which ends where the previous one began. This approach is difficult to explain and may even be confusing to begin with, but it doesn't take too long to get accustomed to the format. Aided by razor-sharp editing, Nolan ensures that the audience is never lost.
At the time of release little did we know that non-linear chronology would become somewhat of a trademark of Christopher Nolan - The Prestige, Inception, Dunkirk and Tenet. In Memento the immaculately scripted reverse narrative is essential in providing an element of empathy with Leonard Shelby. As an audience, we're unaware of what happened immediately prior to the current scene, but we are presented with snippets of information and numerous cryptic clues. In essence, the audience sees effect without cause, and only understands causation as the storyline advances and we move further back in time.
Despite this approach, Christopher Nolan still ensures Memento grips the audience. Tension builds slowly to a completely logical conclusion. The end result, is a truly original film, one that will stick in your mind for some time to come.
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