Some of the best movies stay in your mind forever, and Memento – rather ironically – is one of them. If you’ve seen the film you’ll know why that’s ironic: this is a movie about severe memory loss.
Memento is one of my favorite movies, and it’s streaming for free on multiple networks: Channel 4 in the UK, and The Roku Channel, Pluto TV, Hoopla, Kanopy and Plex in the US. Unfortunately if you’re in Australia, where lead actor Guy Pearce is from, you’ll need to pay to watch it on Stan.
If you haven’t seen Memento yet you’re in for a real treat. Here’s why.
It’ll mess with your mind
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Memento is all about memory, or rather the lack of it. Guy Pearce plays Leonard, a former insurance investigator, and he’s lost his ability to make memories: no sooner have things happened than he’s forgotten all about them. That’s probably connected with the violent attack that left him unconscious and killed his wife.
This isn’t a whodunnit, because we see the who at the very beginning of the movie: this film starts at the end, with Leonard killing a man. What’s missing is the rest of it: the what and the why. And with Leonard’s memory completely shot, that means this is a kind of exceptionally bleak Groundhog Day: every day Leonard starts with a clean slate and the mementoes he’s left himself from the days he can’t remember.
As The New York Daily News put it: “Writer-director Christopher Nolan’s second film is one of the most original and ultimately confounding mind games to reach the screen since The Usual Suspects.”
It’s beautifully done
Just an opinion: Memento is Nolan’s best film till date from r/ChristopherNolan
Here’s Empire magazine: “Although Harold Pinter did this in Betrayal, this is still something special, imaginative, and challenging, Christopher Nolan’s exploration of memory and time toying with narrative and structure.”
It continues: “The actors do a great job messing with perceptions, with both [Carrie-Anne] Moss’ enigmatic femme and [Joe] Pantoliano’s impatient sidekick – new to Leonard every time he encounters them – swinging from friend to foe and back again. Pearce is remarkably good, holding this together with an intent blankness across which flicker bewilderment, frustration, despair and fury.”
It’s completely confusing, in a good way
I have seen “Memento” twice now. Can someone please explain the ending? from r/ChristopherNolan
“It’s all pretty confusing,” said New York Magazine (the review is not currently online), “but then again, so were many of the classic film noirs.” And Boulder Weekly found it “memorably mind-bending”.
It’s definitely a film that benefits from repeated viewing. “Memento is one of those jigsaw puzzles whose pieces snap together more tightly with each viewing,” Entertainment Weekly said. “Fueling it all is a performance by Guy Pearce that’s as indelible as the tattoo ink covering his body.”
As Time Out wrote: “There’s grade A work from all concerned, especially Pearce, but in the end this is Nolan’s film. And he delivers, with a vengeance.”
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