And the #3 rated movie on my list is......... Memento! This is, in anyone’s opinion, one of the most innovative films in years. Each scene ends where the previous one began, so you are going forward in the movie while going backward in the plot while at the same time going forward in the black and white portion of the movie. Confused? Don’t worry, it’s not that bad. The whole opening scene is backward, which sets the mood, especially when you see the Polaroid picture go from fully developed to white. Then we see the life of Leonard (Guy Pierce) through the only way we might be able to understand his condition, going backward in the movie. Leonard has no short term memory, so he forgets things at some of the worst times. But the funny thing is, he can remember everything up until the murder of his wife. Leonard goes to save his wife but is struck in the head and thereafter has no short term memory. The great thing about the format is that we experience the same shock as some of the characters because we have no clue just as they have no clue.
The amazing part of this movie is that it isn’t slow at all. The movie moves very fast and is over before you know it, ending quickly and letting the audience think about the movie long after it is over. It is because of this that it gets 5 stars and not 4, you think about it months after you’ve seen it.
The appeal of this movie is great; it works for people who just want to see a cool movie, for people who like the innovation, for people who want to think about it and be challenged by the movie, and any combination of the three. As long as you pay attention the whole time you watch it, you will enjoy the movie in one way or another.
Jeeee (see the other review entitled Backward Masking) was on to something when he said that it touches on some existentionalist points, and the movie does, which is, in my opinion, the best part of the movie. The greatest point of the movie is that it doesn’t MAKE you think about the philosophy behind it, but LET’S you if you chose to, it isn’t crucial to the understanding of the movie, but it helps you feel like you have a more well rounded sense of Leonard’s motives. This movie works on every level, and delivers to a massive audience, something so hard to do in modern cinema.