Review of Memento (2000) by Jeremy D — 17 Jul 2014

Memento seems like a jaw-dropping, breathtaking and wonderfully crafted film at first, until you start asking the right questions like why exactly is it told backwards? Probably because chronologically it's no different than any common murder mystery. Memento is horrendously flawed. And I'm not just talking about the "how does he remember he has short term memory loss" fault. But there are a lot more.

Leonard should be, just like Mr. Jankis, blissfully unaware of his condition or at least, not be able to remember he has it for more than a few minutes after being told.

Further more, there is no way he could have remembered his methods of taking pictures and making notes every time his memory refreshes. He should have to learn these methods every time his memory flips.

And how does he remember that he is supposed to believe all the junk tattooed to his body? I found this a very hard to swallow. If I woke up each morning and discovered my whole body covered with tattoos, I'd question who put them there and whether I should believe them or not. But Lenny never does, which struck me as absurd. The tattoos read that his wife has been raped and murdered. and he doesn't even check the validity of it. In fact he doesn't even react. It makes the film seem utterly inhuman and wooden.

How does he know who to trust all the time? He shouldn't. There wasn't a single moment in the entire that kept me emotionally invested. Memento is needlessly more complicated than it should be and completely slips the emotional side of things.