Truely, a refreshing thriller out of Hollywood, Memento takes us inside the twisted world of Leonard Shelby (Guy Pearce). Having suffered severe head trauma during an attack directed at his wife, Leonard lost the ability to create new memories and lives with and undying quest to save the woman he loves. In order to track down the killer, he has kept a large collection of notes, including tattoos on his body, that spell out the clues he has thus far gathered.

The segmented format of the movie is almost as compelling as the story line itself. When we first meet Leonard he has just shot Teddy (Joe Pantoliano). This color portion of the movie chronologically works itself backward while every few minutes the viewer is shown a black-and-white segment that works itself forward. The two come to meet at the end of the movie (but is really the middle of the story) and answer a lot of lingering questions.

Is John G. really the man that killed Leonard's wife? Is Teddy someone that can be trusted? Who is Leonard talking to on the phone and is he telling the caller too much? Do the tatoos provide accurate information? Why is there so much crossed out of the files that Leonard keeps?

Many of these questions can be answered by a wonderful six-page article written by Andy Klein. The official Memento web site contains even further clues and answers, providing snippets of documents from Leonard's past. Also, an interesting read is Memento Mori, the short-story that inspired the movie (written by Jonathon Nolan, the director's brother).

Past Movie of the Month Features