By Christian DiMartino

Title: Memento

Genre: Mystery, Drama

Release Date:

Film rating: R

Leads: Guy Pearce, Carrie-Ann Moss, Joe Pantoliano

Director: Christopher Nolan

Writer(s): Christopher and Jonathan Nolan

Christopher Nolan’s first major film, Memento, is one that really shows his roots as a filmmaker. Nolan went on to direct Inception, and both movies display his true talent: thinking. If you’re into that movie, then you cannot resist Memento. Nolan has a talent for invoking deep thought in all his movies, and this one is no exception.

The film centers around Leonard (Guy Pearce), a man with a strange memory disorder: He does not have amnesia, but he cannot make new memories. In order to remember, he is forced to take pictures of certain events and get tattoos of important facts. Leonard is on the hunt for his wife’s killer, but in his case, who is there to trust?

Pearce does his best performance in this film, and that is probably because it is one of the few movies where he is the main character. Typically in supporting roles, Pearce proves that he can carry his own movie. Carrie Ann Moss is fantastic as a Natalie, a waitress that isn’t what she seems, and as is Joe Pantoliano as a supposed “cop” who joins him on the journey.

Memento sounds a little like your typical thriller, but it takes the genre one step further: The entire movie goes backwards. Memento literally starts from the end, and it is all leading up to the beginning. Most thrillers are like puzzles, whereas Memento really is one. Nolan challenges his viewers by letting them piece the mystery together scene by scene.

There have not been many movies quite like this, and the only one that is nearly as clever is Memento. Nolan and his brother Jonathan are practically the owners of a brain factory, and they wrote a movie deemed to challenge. You can take or leave it, but I love it.

Memento was nominated for two Academy-Awards including Best Original Screenplay and Best Editing. It did not win either? Are movies better edited? Are movies more original? When was the last time a movie was told backwards? Memento, that’s when. It should have been nominated for best picture (and won, because this is one of the great films of the past decade).

Unlike Leonard, you will be able to remember this movie. It is one that truly burns in your memory and stays there long after you see it. But not many people have seen it, so that is why it is the one that got away.