::READERS REVIEWS::

Memento - Leonard is an insurance investigator whose memory has been damaged following a head injury he sustained after intervening on his wife's murder. His quality of life has been severely hampered after this event, and he can now only live a comprehendable life by tattooing notes on himself and taking pictures of things with a Polaroid camera. The movie is told in forward flashes of events that are to come that compensate for his unreliable memory, during which he has liaisons with various complex characters. Leonard badly wants revenge for his wife's murder, but, as numerous characters explain, there may be little point if he won't remember it in order to provide closure for him. The movie veers between these future occurrences and a telephone conversation Leonard is having in his motel room in which he compares his current state to that of a client whose claim he once dealt with. If you're looking for something intense, suspenseful, and different than your usual effects-packed thriller, this is the best movie. It's brilliant story telling. You might get frustrated because you don't know what's going on. That's okay. In fact, that's the whole idea. Sit back and find out just how twisted and complex Leonard's world is. You'll have a hard time forgetting how much you enjoyed it.

See It Again To Appreciate It Even More - I saw this film when it first came out in theaters about 10 years ago. As has been well described in other reviews, it's a brilliant psychological thriller that keeps you guessing as you see each scene the way the main character would- without any memory of what came before. As the film progresses, into the past, the mystery is gradually revealed, and what we find out at the end, which is what happened at the beginning, gives new meaning to everything that came after. Sound confusing? Well it is. Which is why the film is worth seeing again.

Seeing it again after 10 years was a strange experience, and even more fulfilling than the first time. That's because I didn't remember how the story ended (or began), so I could appreciate the unraveling of the mystery anew. And yet, with each new plot detail revealed, I began to have vague recollections of what would happen next. That made each scene more significant and enjoyable.

To put it another way, when you see the film the first time, you're mostly in the dark about what's really going on until the end. And by then you may have forgotten much of what you saw because you didn't know it mattered at the time. Seeing it again, each detail becomes richer in meaning, the film seems deeper, and I could appreciate it on another level.

When you get past the superficial level of the plot mystery, what remains is a meditation on how we choose who we are in the world, and the role that memory plays.

After seeing this film, you may feel just a bit queasy, as you consider whether the foundation of your reality is as firm as you thought. We are, after all, what we know. And we know only what we can remember. And memory is imperfect at best, and may in fact be just a well-crafted illusion to create the world we want to live in. In that world, the meaning we bring to each new day is just a product of the memories we carry with us. There is a little bit of Leonard Shelby in all of us.

Complex, Confusing Story on Revenge and Remembering - - This is a intricate crime story, and somewhat confusing to watch. The main character, Leonard Shelby (Guy Pearce) has lost his short-term memory. His long-term memory is intact. He can remember details and everything that happened before his "accident", but cannot retain what he has done or said five or ten minutes after doing anything (anterograde amnesia). He is unsure of who to trust, who are his friends, what is true and his only goal is revenge, finding the man who raped and murdered his wife. He is focused only on justice.

He is well-built, thin, handsome, wearing expensive suits, driving an expensive jaguar, but lives in ratty, run-down motels, paying cash for all he wants. He is a former insurance investigator, very aware of his handicap, explaining to people in great detail why he has trouble knowing them or remembering what he told them. He has to rely on others, his index cards, photos, and skin tattoos to latch on to his past thoughts and observations.

Leonard has psychological issues as he fights and struggles to interpret the evidence he finds and keeps on index cards and hiding places. The film starts from the endpoint, the murder of "Teddy" known as John Edward Gammell. The film re-winds and stalls in the present at times - it is complex and confusing to refigure the frames and realize how the meaning of events changes. The bad and good criss-cross as the story unfolds. It seems the color scenes are shown in reverse order and black and white are chronological. The two sequences come together at the end of the film.

Leonard meets a woman named Natalie after finding a note in his clothes. Natalie at first is angry and resentful because she identifies Leonard with the clothes and car of her boyfriend Jimmy. After being educated about Leonard's short-term memory she uses him to drive a threatening man out of town. She offers to run the license plate on Leonard's latest tattoo to help in his investigation.

The ending is somewhat of a surprise if you can figure out the movie's timeline.

Incredible - You've already read how this movie was made in all these other reviews. I'll just add that this is a great movie, and it stays with you afterward. A day lateer, you'll still be saying to yourself "Oh! That's why such and such happened!". Don't miss it. You'll love it.

Memento - We have been sent a DVD that is for Region 1.... therefore we cannot play it in Australia. Amazon should be aware of this and make sure that the correct DVDs are sent to the relevant regions.

Great DVD menú - El menú del DVD es muy interesante porque te hace ver todo un tipo de expediente clñínico y los botones de cada sección están parcialmente ocultos.
me gustó mucho

A film to enjoy more than once! - I saw this movie a couple of years ago, and, now that I'm old enough to have short term memory myself LOL, I decided to watch it again on a whim. I am amazed at how the film stands up. I saw nuances this viewing that I don't remember seeing in the last. Nolan is doing Inception, due out in July, and the theme sounds similar. I cannot recommend this movie enough. Eventually, you will put certain flashbacks and fast-forwards together and be stunned at the "real" story. Thumbs up!

Excellent movie - The director Christopher Nolan created a superb piece of art; the structure of the film is going backwards and is the editing and concept what makes this a unique film. It was until I saw it for the second time that I truly understood what was going on, the reason is that there's so many key details that reveal the plot. This is a great movie and the least I want is to throw any spoilers, but trust me when I say that if you haven't seen this movie you should go and give it a try.

Remember Sammy Jankis - I'll admit it, it took me nine years to get to this film. It couldn't possibly exceed the hype. There was just so much critical love for this film that it couldn't possibly deserve it. Yet, after the movie had ended for my first viewing, I was left with the words, "Holy crap, that was pretty good." My mind was blown at the ending, and after this mind-frak of a film, I left to meditate on it. Then I watched it again after a month, and I stuck with my original opinion that this is in fact, a really good and original thriller. Is it perfect? No, but it's still quite the classic and a must-see for everybody, at least once.

If there's one reason to watch this movie, it's in the way it's presented. It starts at the end, starts at the beginning, and alternates between the two until they meet in the middle, to which the movie is wrapped up. It works for the story, and keeps the viewers on their toes in keeping track of everything. Let me illustrate to you the brilliance in this presentation. There's a scene where Carrie-Ann Moss comes up to Guy Pearce in her house, bleeding and bruised. She tells Guy Pearce that it was her boyfriend did it to her and that Guy needs to get rid of one of his associates. Seems harmless enough, right? Right, but you just watched the scene without context. Then it moves to the scene that led up to the previous scene. Carrie-Ann Moss comes into a room, Carrie-Ann Moss tells Guy that she's going to use him & proceeds to go on a obscenity-laced tirade directed towards Guy. Only problem is that Guy will never remember this conversation in a minute because he can't write down that Carrie-Ann Moss is actually bad. Guy then hits her, causing her to bleed, so Carrie-Ann Moss walks out the door. She sits in her car for a minute, and then Guy forgets everything that just happened to him, and Carrie-Ann Moss walks through the door as seen in the scene previously, or afterwords. It's more or less brilliant and Nolan uses it to his advantage to spice up an already great story.

If there's on fact the movie wants to get across to you, it's that this short-term memory loss makes your life a living hell. The movie goes deep into the detail of how somebody with this condition would live. What are the downsides, what is their life like? Does the ending take things a little bit too far, in basically revealing that half of what the movie told you was a basically a lie? Yeah, maybe a little bit. But hey, the reveal speech by Joe Pantoliano and Guy Pearce is great. And again, it's a 'Holy Crap' moment that will leave you satisfied on your first viewing. Did I get the same feeling the second time around? No. Since I was diverted thinking about the mystery of it all, I started thinking about the more logical points of the movies and the detail. In this sense, the movie didn't hold up for me the second time around. Plus, I must ask, is Carrie-Ann Moss' character really necessary? I mean, besides the scenes that I mentioned above, was she really essential to the movie, or was she just a diversion, or just another person to manipulate Guy Pearce after Joe Pantoliano is gone?

Overall, I would highly recommend seeing Memento once. Any more than that is risky. Sure, it's brilliant, but some of the magic from the first viewing was lost on the second, as least for me. Still a classic, I really hope I never get that short-term memory loss.