Review of Memento (2000) by Kkl10 A — 06 Apr 2014

Memento (2000) - 6,5.

I watched this movie last night after Stranger than Paradise, but I'll review it first because it's much easier. Interesting editing work, colored scenes display the plot backwards and monochromatic scenes in normal chronology, in the end we see the middle of the story... I can't see what's so special about this, it wasn't particularly difficult for me to make sense of the story with just 1 view and I didn't find that it added anything appreciable to the cinematic experience... it merely entertained while it lasted... The story itself is nothing of the other world and is not very believable. A man who with anterograde amnesia is wrongly convinced that some guy raped and murdered his wife and spends most of his time hunting for that man, but due to his condition he mostly wanders in the dark and will do some erratic killing here and there and forget about it. The truth is that he killed his wife himself and can't remember it. Now, how exactly has the amnesiac able to survive in such an hostile environment? How exactly did he arrive at the point he was in the beginning of the story? There are several characters in the plot whose intentions or motivations lack clarification, not saying it doesn't make any sense but it's easy to see how it was all forced and manipulated to suit the far-fetched story. If this was supposed to be a satirical comedy I could have another appreciation and maybe rate it higher. Not being the case I wonder if 6,5 is not too high for what I experienced, I would gladly rate this lower, only reason I don't is because at a purely technical level, particularly the editing work, this is a good... cheating its way up among the dumb critics I'd say. If a movie can get so much love and kiss simply due to some unconventional narrative structure or some other purely technical aspect while neglecting real depth of story, meaning or cinematography then something is awfully wrong. Guy Pearce acting is another good point as well, the only thing that I found remotely interesting he managed to actually make his unlikely character believable. As soon as plot is chronologically ordered and the amnesiac condition is understood, it's apparent how basic and shallow this movie really is. Pathetically overrated, forgettable experiment.

This movie has an educational value about anterograde amnesia, it's worth for that.