Memento

So, I just finished watching Memento.  I think my head will be swimming for days!

Guy Pearce plays the lead role of Leonard Shelby.  Leonard suffers from short term memory loss and uses Polaroid pictures, notes, and tatoos (for really important facts) to help him track down and seek revenge on the the men who raped and murdered his wife - and caused his memory problems.

The movie opens with a scene where Leonard is taking a picture of a man he just killed (we assume on the man who killed his wife), but as you watch the scene, you realize that parts of it are going backward.  The Polaroid picture gets more faded as he fans air on it, the shell casing moves backward, and the blood from the victim is flowing the wrong way.

And as you struggle to try to process that, you begin a two hour journey of black and white film, as well as color, that runs mostly backward to fill in the clues of what has happened.  The end (the beginning?) of the movie blew me away when it was revealed that Leonard had mixed his story up with the story of Sammy and we realize that his wife perhaps didn't die during the rape and murder but instead was given an overdose of insulin.  That made the "Don't Forget Sammy Jankis" tatoo even more meaningful.

The use of the out of sequence style was very interesting.  I've seen it done on television shows before (like on sitcoms), but never this effectively.

Leonard definitely felt inner conflict (even if he didn't remember), which was much of the focus of the movie.  We also see Leonard get used in some external conflict situations between Natalie and Teddy, each of them encouraging Leonard to trust things the other said.

I needed to go back and rewind after I saw the scene where Natalie came in hid all the pens in her house, knowing that Leonard was going to be looking for something to write with.  Evil.

I wouldn't mind seeing this movie in chronological order, but I don't think it would be nearly as powerful.

As I sit here and ponder the movie even more - and go through the Salon.com break down of it, I am remembering other pieces of the movie that I overlooked.

Good movie!  My mind IS blown!