MEMENTO

So was I. Confused? But neither he nor we learn who the real friend is until the end of the movie (the beginning of the story). Because of his extensive note-taking (including things that Teddy and Natalie say about each other), Leonard is aware that at least one of them is lying to him. While one of them tries to help Leonard solve his problem, the other attempts to use his memory loss to an advantage. The two primary supporting characters are a man named Teddy (Joe Pantoliano) and a woman named Natalie (Carrie-Anne Moss), both of whom may or may not be working in Leonard's best interests.

Of course, since we witness the whole story in reverse, we see these notes disappear as the film goes on; we see photos un-taken and tattoos un-written. And, most bizarre, he actually has pertinent information tattooed all over his body. He takes polaroid pictures of everyone he meets, scribbling their names at the bottom. So he writes notes to himself. According to Leonard, he can remember everything about his life up to the injury, but everything since is a blur, and he has learned to deal with this problem by constantly attempting to document everything he discovers and every experience he has, especially those things that constitute evidence about the case. Leonard Shelby (Guy Pearce, Rules Of Engagement) suffers from an inability to create new memories as the result of an injury he incurred trying to save his wife from an attacker. Since I can't really summarize the film's plot in the traditional way (discussing the "beginning" means giving away the "ending" and vice versa), I will attempt to simply recount the relevant facts.

It's an intriguing way to watch a movie, but unfortunately, it sometimes becomes a little ponderous, and this is not helped by Nolan's dark, dull tone and unsettling subject matter. Anyone who saw the similar episode of Seinfeld (which itself was based on a play in the same style by Harold Pinter) may have some idea how this works. The film is about a man with short-term memory loss who strives to find his wife's killer, but in order to make us audience members better understand the condition, the film is edited backwards, with the final scene first and each successive scene having occurred just prior to the one preceding it. Of course, I could not hope to emulate with my unhallowed hands the clever subtleties in writer/director Nolan's achievement, but at least it will allow me to have a little fun with my job. In an attempt to give a sense of this film's structure (and also to see if anyone out there is paying attention), I'm going to try to write this review in the same way that Christopher Nolan's bizarre, inventive, and altogether fascinating film Memento is presented. ****