Rating: 
Summary: Let me grab a pen.
Review: Everybody knows the setup right. Guy looses both girl and short-term memory in violent attack. He can remember everything up to the attack, but nothing afterwards for more than 10 or 15 minutes before it fades away. Yet faced with the prospect of spending the rest of his natural life as an institutionalized, non-functioning vegetable, unable to heal the emotional wound of his wife's (murder?) because he cannot "feel time," cannot process his pain, our protagonist "Leonard" (Guy Pearce) opts instead to focus his crippled consciousness on vengeance - even though he can't possibly remember it when he acheives it - as an "existential" redressing of the balance of the crime. "My wife won't be avenged until her murderer is dead; the act of killing him will avenge her; it doesn't matter if I remember doing it or not" is Leonard's POV. So he writes himself notes compulsively and somewhat frantically, since ink on paper must substitute for working memory. The really important stuff he gets tattooed on so that nobody can deprive him of it. He takes polaroids of important people and places and writes cryptic descriptions on them. It's all a way of keeping himself vital. He actually fares pretty well, all things considered. Pearce's performance conveys a certain inherent sense of humor behind the frenzy of the character in his predicament, such as he would probably require to keep himself even marginally sane within the 15 minute gamut of his consciousness. Naturally, inevitably, he does get swindled in spite of his constant and justifiable paranoia, and because "Memento" is a film noir, of course the swindler (well, one of them) is a femme fatale, a spider woman in the grand tradition, played brilliantly by Carrie-Anne Moss. Yet unlike the films of the 40's, the swindle does not destroy him and is ultimately incidental - just another memory-that-was. Leonard's condition renders him amoral, unaccountable and oblivious, a being totally "of the moment." The scene with Moss ("Natalie") where she shows her true colors, knowing that she can say whatever she wants without consequence, is almost as hilarious as it is vicious and intense and believable. And the whole movie is composed of similar "real" moments - "it's all in the incidental details that don't seem to matter," to paraphrase Leonard himself. And the way it's edited is perfect. Never before has a mere technical convention - that of beginning at the chronological end of the story and working backwards in overlapping segments - been so effective in conveying the peculiar quality of a character's psychology. You really feel as though you have a sense of what it must be like for Leonard, because you don't really know what's going on either. It's a device, but it works. If you have to watch it more than once to grasp it, so what.
Rating: 
Summary: most overrated film since eyes wide shut
Review: pretentious with a Big P...film school project gone amok--don't know which is worse...the acting or the dialogue. this 'lost memory stuff' has been done to death in hollywood..enough.
wish i had enough memory loss to forget having to sit through
this mess.
Rating:
Summary: Slightly flawed, but excellent
Review: The plot is simple on the surface: Guy Pearce plays Leonard Shelby, a man out on a romantic and quixotic search for vengeance against the men who murdered his wife and damaged his brain that prevents him from forming new memories. Director Chris Nolan presents the plot of "Memento" backwards in 10-minute increments to highlight Lenny's fragile memory and confusion. Thus, as the Amazon.com reviewer noted, what happened is not nearly as important or interesting as why things happened. The acting is superb on all counts, as each actor plays their role perfectly. The only gripe I have is that the plot has some serious holes ("How does Lenny remember he doesn't remember?"), but if the viewer is willing to relax his or her sense of reality, the plot is deeply engrossing. I highly recommend this film.
Rating:
Summary: refreshing and clever.....
Review: "Memento" is the kind of movie you are really going to like or not. The story is a whodunit thriller with some intriguing, if not confusing, twists. I liked the movie. However, upon exiting the theater, I saw a lot of head shaking and some displeased facial expressions. As well as, a few people whispering " I just don't get it......". Well folks, this is just the kind of movie a lot of people will debate, argue, critique, and talk about, and in the end, agree to disagree. It's not for the light of heart who are looking for a romantic comedy with a very predicable ending. It's also not a great cinematographic wonder, or a gun shooting, let's see what we can blow up in every frame, type of action movie. This movie involves paying attention and putting all the pieces together. In the opening credits you see a Polaroid of a murdered man that fades away, and then, the movie begins. Of course, the movie starts at the actual end of the story, yes......, it's told in reverse. It moves backward, scene by scene, each scene overlapping the other slightly, just in case you missed something. The story also has a few extra flashbacks thrown in to confuse us more. But, these flashbacks are very important and pertinent to identifying with the main character. This isn't used too often in moviemaking. It does force one to pay attention though. It makes the movie patron think, mentally work a little, and then form your own conclusion about the film's "message". The director's vehicle of delivery to the audience was done on purpose, no doubt. The ending is appropriate for such a convoluted twist of events. It's well worth waiting for and your glad you finally got there. It feels like you've been on a very thrilling ride but your ready to get off now, thank you very much. Or, you just solved(or not) a difficult crossword puzzle. Others will just feel mentally challenged, a little confused..... But, so what. Maybe that's the point of the story. It's what makes moviemaking and a good story, interesting. In this case, maybe a bit bewildering, but very cleverly told. It's definitely open to a lot of interpretations. For some, at least.
Rating:
Summary: very fun to see
Review: I was forced to see Mulholland Drive "Two Times" because I didn't do good the first time. I am forced to see the Memento 40 times with the same scenes over and over again but this movie is fun to see. I give it five stars because it is not boring, and it is very funny sometimes. I like detective story. This movie has it all. It is very fun to see how a person is being used in so many different way.
Rating:
Summary: Outstanding movie explores memory and identity
Review: Memento is not a movie for everyone. Its nonlinear plot is not a series of flashbacks that accompany a "time forward" plot. It traces the actions of the protagonist- Guy Pearce (L.A. Confidential} back to the beginning of his present state. Joe Pantoliano (The Matrix) plays the quintessential cypher personality of a manipulator as he guides Leonard to a heart stopping climax. Or are we following the fantasy of a damaged brain confabulating to survive? Leonard is driven by revenge - he believes. His drive and discipline are perverted by Teddy (Pantoliano), by the beautiful Carrie-Anne Moss (Matrix), even the manager of the motel he uses as his home base. Leonard's loss of short term memory exposes a disturbing riddle of reality. Do we create our experiences? Or do we follow our memories to 'paint' our existence? As Leonard states early in the movie, memories are notoriously innacurate. So where does this leave Leonard? Oustanding performances and edge-of-your-seat suspense spin Memento into a memorable experience.
Rating: 
Summary: Who is John G?
Review: This film is a testament to the thesis that we create our realities -- sometimes more than other times. Leonard, a man who suffered a freak injury that prevents his attention span from exceeding 5 minutes, is faced with solving the case of his wife's murder. The problem with him is -- are the clues that he finds mere edifices that he uses to inviegle himself into finding "a killer" (as opposed to "the killer") or are the clues legitimate, and are they properly founded upon? At the end (or the beginning), however, after he finds "the killer", he sets off on another parallel journey to apprehend the other killer...In the end, we just realize that he is creating his own reality and the backwards chronology helps to illustrate this point poignantly. Three cheers to the cinematography
Rating:
Summary: There Needs To Be More Movies Like This
Review: I really think that we need more movies like Memento. Memento scores big because of intellegence, maturity, and most of all being unique. The problem with many movies is that they don't bring anything new to the screen, and don't have any depth or intellegent plots. At first, Memento sounds like your average everyday movie, it's about a man who's wife was murdered and now he is seeking revenge. This seems pretty boring, but it isn't, because there is one thing that makes this movie a whole lot more interesting. Leonard, the man whos wife was murdered, got an injury on that same night, and because of it, he can not make new memories, he can remember everything that happened up until the injury, but everyting else just "fades," as he says. One more idea that is brought to the movie is that it is shown in reverse, starting at the end of the movie's story and ending at the beginning. It is a very intellegent idea, because it puts the watcher in Leonards shoes, you know what's going on at the moment, but you have no idea what just happened. You may think that the movie will be boring because of this, but it left me on the edge of my seat nearly drooling becuase I wanted to find out what would happen next. Memento's acting is amazing. Guy Pearce puts on a very convincing performance of a nervous and confused Leonard. Joe Pantoliano also does a great job as Leonards friend, yet you never know for sure who he is until the end of the movie. Carrie-Ann Moss plays another one of Leonard's friends who puts on a great performance as a hard-to-impress yet understanding woman. Memento is flawless, a masterpeice. Every element that makes up a good movie is present here, it is a deep and intellegent movie that will keep you on the edge of you seat, thinking and always dying to find out what will happen next. Without a doubt a 5 star movie, original, unique, exciting, and very intellegent, see this movie.
Rating:
Summary: Refreshing
Review: I watched this movie with a group of people. I, being the only avid film fan, was the only one who seemed to completely get it. Alot of people said that this or that didn't make sense but anyone can get the movie the first time if you just have to watch! This movie is an example of Filmmaking. It's not just famcy CGI and huge celebrity names. This movie is based around a plot and the characters who make up that plot. This is a movie you will continue to talk about and recommend until everyone you know has seen it. It's just very well done. The performances are great and the unsequential order of the film made an interesting story even better. I read the short story before I watched the film and there is alot of differences from the story for example he uses sticky pads and a few other things that I won't reveal for those who've not experienced either. I suggest everyone read the story as well to see how it all began. I truly feel this movie should have got more Oscar Noms than it did perhaps for Best Picture. But despite it's lack of accolade's it is as good if not better than some of the films that were so highly praised and recognized. Christopher Nolan has proven himself a true Director with this film and Isomnia but credit must also be given to the writer for this film and it's original short story. All around great Film!!!!
Rating:
Summary: For a Moment
Review: Too seldom is the concept of a blind mourner treated on film, and more seldom still that it is treated well. The final episode of M*A*S*H comes to mind, as does Radio Flyer, but until Memento, these two titles were alone, unique to this subject matter. Other films have tried, such as Jacob's Ladder, but sadly, this film falls short of the emotional impact found in the first two, and now in Memento.
Simply put, our protagonist is so damaged by grief, so bludgeoned by sadness that he chooses not to remember the event, or denies to the fullest extent the fall out of the tragedy.
Beautifully executed, this concept, in Memento.
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