Memento (2000)

Memento (2000)

10/10

Starring
Guy Pearce
Carrie-Anne Moss
Joe Pantoliano


Directed by Christopher Nolan

Memento is not just a movie it is an artwork, an artwork with editing at its best, continuity at its max and a script that just draws you in. The screenplay is masterful, as you are watching the movie from back to front; you get to feel like Leonard himself.

Memento is written and directed by Christopher Nolan, who adapted it from his younger brother Jonathan Nolan’s (Person of Interest creator, writer and executive producer) short story "Memento Mori".

The brothers started work on the film in 1996 when Jonathan pitched the story to Christopher on a road trip, the two then started to send story and script back and forth as Christopher developed his film from a short story about a man named Earl who is a patient of a mental institution.  Earl’s wife like Leonard was killed by an anonymous man, and during the attack Earl lost his ability to create new long-term memories and convinces himself through written notes to himself to escape the mental institution and track down and kill his wife murder.

The movie starts at the end and runs till we get to see what led to the end. The movie is told in two different parallel series of scenes, one of which is in black and white, and it is shown chronologically, and the other is in coloured and shown in a reverse order sequence. The two stories meet at the end of the film, and it shows us what led to the beginning of the film.

The movie plot is about a man named Leonard (Guy Pearce) who has anterograde amnesia, which makes it difficult for him to retain new explicit memories. To be able to keep a tab on his life, Leonard developed a system where he uses notes, tattoos and Polaroid photos to be able to track where he is and who he knows and what he is doing or about to do.

Leonard’s problem started when he got hit in the head when he witnessed his wife being raped and murdered; now Leonard has only one goal in life, to track down a certain John G who he believes killed his wife.

Rated as one of the best movies in the 2000s, Memento is featured in notable lists of top films. Memento was very successful at the box office, making almost 10 times its production cost and placing Nolan’s name in the lips of many production studios, inclusive of Warner Bros where Christopher Nolan made The Batman Trilogy and will be working with them for the making of the new Superman film named Man of Steel in 2013.

Memento received numerous accolades and got two Academy Awards nominations for Best Original Screenplay and Best Film Editing. There is nothing better than for you to take the time to see this classic.