B-Movies & Couch Classics
Reviews of Movies Often Overlooked or Forgotten
Memento
2001 R New Market
by Arik Ben Treston
 Film
lovers have a new name to learn and remember. That name is of Christopher
Nolan, whose phenomenal breakthrough feature, Memento is a mind-blowing
journey, and a taste of future greatness to come from this talented man.
Australian actor Guy Pearce (L.A. Confidential, Priscilla Queen of the
Desert), plays Leonard Shelby, a man who has no short-term memory. After
the death of a loved one, Leonard only has his memory up to that point,
nothing else. He loses his short-term memory after only a few minutes and
in order to be successful on his journey of finding the killer, he must
write himself notes, tattoo messages on his body and take instant pictures
with quick scribbles written on them. This jigsaw-like life that he’s
living is not an easy one but it’s for his mission of vengeance.
Otherwise, he won’t know why he is where he is and what he is doing there
in the first place, just who he is and everything that’s happened to him
up to that traumatic event.
Leonard’s plight quickly becomes that of the audience, as we are invited,
or — more like it — thrust into his world by watching a true, non-linear
film in every sense of the word. Very rapidly do we notice that this film
is working backwards, but not exactly. It runs back in spurts, then
forward, then back some more, and so on. The audience gets put to the test
with our own memory as we try to remember what we saw, where we are now,
and where we might be going, similar to Leonard’s situation.
The two main characters that aid or hurt Leonard are played by Carrie-Anne
Moss (The Matrix) and Joe Pantoliano (also of The Matrix and
Goonies,
among other great roles). This serpentine thriller simply begs to be paid
attention to and multiple viewings are not a bad idea. It’s easy to find
films that spoon-feed the audience. It’s difficult to find strong films
such as Memento that work on not insulting the intelligence of its
watchers, and instead works with it in structuring a solid and immensely
satisfying film.
Pearce (again going for the “American” role) shows off his intense,
smoldering personality and wonderful restrained acting ability. In due
time, his presence in American cinema will continue to grow, especially
with the upcoming remake of the classic The Time Machine. He convincingly
plays a man who we believe is going through a really rough time and our
concern is for his well being and for him to find what he’s looking for
and to end the drama that’s occurred in his life.
Nolan, working off of a short story that his brother Jonathan wrote,
concocts an amazing piece of work that stays fresh, confusing, trying and
effective. It is no wonder that even though it was only released on a
handful of screens (about 350), it slowly, through great word of mouth,
rolled its way onto making about $24 million dollars. That is an
incredible feat to achieve with such a small film that had a miniscule
budget and an untried film company (New Market) releasing it. It’s a
testament to filmgoers out there that shows us that if the right product
is put out there, we will search it out and give it the proper respect
that it deserves.
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