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intereact!Director: Christopher Nolan
Actors: Guy Pearce, Carrie-Anne Moss, Joe Pantoliano, Mark Boone Junior, and Russ Fega
Rated: R (Restricted)
Retail Price (not our price): $19.94
Release Date: 2002-05-21
Theatrical Release Date: 2000
Studio: Sony Pictures
Run Time: 113 minutes
Format: Array
Format: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DTS Surround Sound, Dubbed, DVD-Video, Special Edition, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
Discs: 2
Editorial Reviews (supplied by Amazon.com):
1) Amazon.com essential video
Guy Pearce (L.A. Confidential) and Joe Pantoliano (The Matrix) shine in this absolute stunner of a movie. Memento combines a bold, mind-bending script with compelling action and virtuoso performances. Pearce plays Leonard Shelby, hunting down the man who raped and murdered his wife. The problem is that "the incident" that robbed Leonard of his wife also stole his ability to make new memories. Unable to retain a location, a face, or a new clue on his own, Leonard continues his search with the help of notes, Polaroids, and even homemade tattoos for vital information. Because of his condition, Leonard essentially lives his life in short, present-tense segments, with no clear idea of what's just happened to him. That's where Memento gets really interesting; the story begins at the end, and the movie jumps backward in 10-minute segments. The suspense of the movie lies not in discovering what happens, but in finding out why it happened. Amazingly, the movie achieves edge-of-your-seat excitement even as it moves backward in time, and it keeps the mind hopping as cause and effect are pieced together. Pearce captures Leonard perfectly, conveying both the tragic romance of his quest and his wry humor in dealing with his condition. He is bolstered by several excellent supporting players, and the movie is all but stolen from him by Pantoliano, who delivers an amazing performance as Teddy, the guy who may or may not be on his side. Memento has an intriguing structure and even meditations on the nature of perception and meaning of life if you go looking for them, but it also functions just as well as a completely absorbing thriller. It's rare to find a movie this exciting with so much intelligence behind it. --Ali Davis
Customer Reviews (supplied by Amazon.com):
Average Customer Rating: 4.5 out of 5
1) Remember - you are mortal [Rating: 5 out of 5]
Memento is a truly complex and engrossing thriller, full of twists and ambiguous peripheral sub-plots which only the most observant of viewers will catch. If you can get interested enough to explore beyond the basic experience, it's as about as cerebral anything committed to celluloid in its depth and deliverance of narrative. Leonard Shelby has a memory span of around 15 minutes (not a hard and fast rule - this can change dependent on stress) due to Anterograde Amnesia - meaning he can remember the past but cannot make new memories - as the result of head trauma suffered during an attack in which his wife, we are lead to believe, was killed. Now, with only notes and Polaroid pictures to remind himself of what he is doing, he's searching for the killer in order to extract revenge. Okay, so it's an original story, and it's also really original insofar as it's a plotline which is told in neither a linear or non-linear fashion, but in reverse chronological order, however even beyond that (if you followed it) there's so much more beyond the confines of what we do see and hear, that it leads to an incredibly complex and wonderfully intricate story. If you only watch it once and understand it completely you're a genius because it's taken me several viewings to get the entire picture. I was also lucky enough to find the "Easter Egg" (possibly the best Easter Egg on any DVD ever - if anyone knows of a better one, please let me know) and found that even after watching Memento in chronological order, it was still engrossing and deeply intricate. The special features delve a little deeper into the history of storyline also, giving us some hints and clues as to how Leonard Shelby ended up in the time and place we join him (not to give too much away - but he's an escaped mental patient), and even the special features themselves are cryptic and accessed only through careful examination, analysis and exploration. EVEN THEN, there's a great deal of symbolism (torn out newspaper clippings in the shape of America, references to the nihilistic nature of a life lived without cognisance of actions etc.) It's clear that writer/director Christopher Nolan invested a lot in this, creating a story that can be disregarded as `decent' or explored as magnificent in its dimensions. Top marks, and some of the best special features on a DVD, but I can also see how some people wouldn't enjoy it simply because it's not mindless enough. However, if you're an obsessive mind and the sort of person who likes to look beyond the surface, you'll love this film.2) Great film but avoid this edition at all costs... [Rating: 1 out of 5]
...unless you're into being tortured. I won't be redundant as other's have stated how utterly ridiculous the menu system is and the battery of test you're forced to take to see the features you paid for. this edition is for the pretentious, "hip" psuedo-intellectual. Don't get me wrong, I love the film itself but this edition is just terrible. I have never reviewed anything here but I felt so strongly about this edition that I had to join the others in warning you in advance.3) Twisting and Chaotic [Rating: 4 out of 5]
Guy Pearce is a man who can make no new memories beyond the short term, so how does one find your wifes killer under such circumstances?Filmed in snapshots and in a strange order you really have to watch this movie several times to really feel the full effect but it is worth every minute of disjointed suspense.Guy Pearce and Carrie Ann-Moss really shine and deliver top notch performances.4) Memento [Rating: 3 out of 5]
Memento [Blu-ray]I purcahsed this dvd for my son-in-law for a Christmas gift. He loved it. It was delivered in a timely manner.5) Cinema of the Reverse [Rating: 5 out of 5]
Director Christopher Nolan was unknown in 1996 as he took a cross-country trip with his brother, Jonathan; who pitched a storyline to him. Christopher loved it and they began to collaborate on the project. Christopher finished his screenplay for a future film before Jonathan finished his short story, which he called MEMENTO MORI. The film did not come to fruition immediately.Nolan was born in England, and he spent his childhood moving back and forth between the United Kingdom and the States; ending up with dual citizenship. In the middle 90's, he had shot a low budget film in London. It was called FOLLOWING, and it was released in 1998. It was shot in black and white, and it had a fractured non-linear plot line. Simultaneously, Nolan's lady friend, Emma Thomas, was pitching his finished script for MEMENTO. It was considered by the executives who saw it, "the most innovative script" that they had seen in ages. It was green-lighted, and given a budget of 4.5 million dollars. It was originally slated to be shot in Montreal, and then the project shifted to Los Angeles. It was said that at Cannes, after the screening of FOLLOWING, in 1998, Nolan gave a pitch to the audience for funding to make MEMENTO. One just has to admire such audacity. Nolan had felt for a long time that he liked the way commercials and music videos were shot in a non-linear fashion. He also responded to literature presented that way. So he decided to take the methodology, and what he learned on his first feature, refine it and transfer the concept to MEMENTO; creating a wondrous cinematic puzzle of a picture. It certainly is evident that he succeeded beyond his wildest imagination. MEMENTO raises the curtain showing us the end game, an action that is the result of circumstances we do not yet know, presented in color. Then it jumps to a separate narrative line, what we figure out is a flashback, presented in B&W, with our protagonist, Leonard Shelby waking up in a "strange" motel room. That is when we discover, as he talks to someone on the phone, that he suffers from a rare form of amnesia, known as "anterograde". "I know who I am. I just can't form new memories." When he awakens in that motel room, or in any room, he seems to have to piece together just where he is. Then we are flashed forward to about five minutes ahead of where we left off in the color narrative. Lenny's attention span seems to be about 5 minutes, and each time it begins to fade, we are transported to the B&W storyline shown in what seems chronological order. Odd as it seems, the color narrative is being shown in reverse chronological order; that is to say that the color section is presented in a linear fashion, but each time we return to it, it begins 5 to 10 minutes prior to where we left off, filling in some plot gaps as it approaches the inevitable fade out.As an audience, we are confused, dazzled, and fascinated as we endeavor the meaning of these two independent parallel timelines. We watch, we make assumptions, we surmise, and as the film comes to what might be closure we realize that the two narratives were not parallel, rather they were moving toward each other, one linear from the past, the other in a tantalizing mind-blowing reverse mode, kind of in the present. Suddenly, following the action in the B&W narrative, the two timelines merge, and the action is transformed to color; with the narrative lunging toward us repeating the opening scene of the movie, becoming an action that is more like in the middle of the plotline. Are we more confused? A little perhaps. The plot threads converge and the "mystery" is explained, although it might not be accurately explicated, and in some ways it only deepens as even more options and solutions present themselves. Guy Pearce as Leonard Shelby was astonishingly good, both a lost soul and a dangerous avenger; a man so logical, so meticulous, so organized that he found a way to circumnavigate his inability "to form new memories". As an actor he has never been more physical, more intimidating and lethal, pulsating with pent-up emotion and energy -yet he manages to capture our empathy, and holds our attention, his hopes become ours, his quest our own. With the odd reverse narrative, the director gets us to rediscover time and place much as Lenny has to, as we careen along beside him, off balance, piecing together the plot like manic chimps putting together a puzzle while swinging on a rope; several ropes. Carrie Ann-Moss as Natalie the bar maid, the gangster's moll, a drug runner, a femme fatale, love interest, abuser, and ten times a bitch -was very effective, creating a character that we can not shake from our senses, emerging as sexy, selfish, and far from innocent. She aspired to be the queen bee, acting as a black widow, shamelessly manipulating all the men in her life; steering toward what she perceived was her big pay off. Joe Pantoliano, a veteran of putz roles, usually playing shady, vicious, unreliable, and untrustworthy types, leaves shadings of all this in his John "Teddy" Gammel, a man who misrepresents himself to Lenny, changes his identity often, and hides his purpose; whatever that might be, from hour to hour, from episode to episode. Yet his role as cop, or ex-cop, crooked and larcenous, comes off as semi-sympathetic -quite a feat for any actor. This film provokes discussion, after challenging the viewer to stay with it. Director Nolan has created a complex methodology that continues to perplex us, even after multiple viewings. The movie is not easily pigeon-holed or labeled. It requires that we consider the fragility and the ineptness of memory that includes some misrepresentations and implanted data, and is rife with occlusions. MEMENTO has dozens of scenes that change point of view, or particulars of plot, as we experience them; plot elements that surely are in conflict with themselves, perhaps even some teasing red herring moments. I feel that director Nolan intentionally played games with us, as his later suggestions of multiple endings, and his complex DVD and websites data are testament to. Regardless, this is a film like no other, an original that is worthy of both its accolades and its criticism.