'Memento' film tells the story backward

"Memento" is a film that takes a basic story - Leonard (Guy Pearce) is avenging his wife's death - and it tells it backward. The film starts with him shooting who he thinks raped and murdered his wife, and the action progresses backwards from there.
   It's a brawny writing technique, perhaps mastered by playwright Harold Pinter in "Betrayal," but "Memento" relies too heavily upon the quirkiness of the film's form, and the story's credibility is lost along the way.
   The most intriguing element of the screenplay is Leonard's condition; since his wife's death, he has no short-term memory. Leonard can't create new memories, so he can only trust the memories before his wife's death, the notes in his own handwriting, and the Polaroids he takes of his friends.
   Natalie (Carrie-Anne Moss) helps him find his wife's killer, and Teddy (Joe Pantoliano) thinks he's in danger and is trying to get him out of town. Each time Leonard runs into Natalie or Leonard, he looks at his stash of Polaroids to see who they are and if he can trust them (on Teddy's picture, Leonard wrote "TEDDY - Don't believe his lies") and he continues to tell them about his condition.
   "Have I told you about my condition?" he asks them each time he sees them. But if Leonard lacks all memory after to his wife's death, how does he know about his condition? Sure, his most important notes are tattooed across his body, but that would require him taking off his shirt every 15 minutes to remind himself that "John G. raped and murdered my wife."
   Aside from that loophole, the presentation of "Memento" will keep you thinking in circles and figure eights for at least the next 24 hours. As children, we're taught to read left to right and go from beginning to end. When a film is presented in such a manner as "Memento," the beginning chronologically becomes the integral part, because the chronological climax is given away in the first five minutes.
   In other words: if it was situated chronologically, "Memento" would be worthless.
   Writer/director Christopher Nolan crafted the film's events in trigger-like sequences ... one event prompts another and right when you start to write off the film as obvious and expected, another plot point is revealed and it proves your expectations wrong.
   Pierce leads the film around dark corners and through unexpected tunnels with a driven anxiety similar to that of Brad Pitt in "Fight Club." Pierce stands out as Moss and Pantoliano quietly support the story with stereotype-milking performances, and like "Fight Club," "Memento" will likely become a favorite among today's fans of intelligent, shocking cinema.
  
  

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