From the Vault Reviews: Memento (2000)

By Thomas Broome-Jones

My personal favourite Christopher Nolan film is chiefly impressive when you compare its ambition to its modest budget. Mr Nolan has been known to be a very visual storyteller and films such as Inception and Batman Begins correlate very well with that point. But they had huge budgets and crews working on them so it's refreshing to see Nolan's earlier work reflect his flair without having to throw money at it until it looks right.

Inked: Pearce must remember things with various tattoos around his body.

The plot to Memento is told in two arcs, the primary one is in colour and is told in chronologically reverse order, the secondary arc is in black-and-white and is told in a linear fashion through narration from the protagonist, played by the sorely underrated Guy Pearce. Pearce is playing a man who has retrograde amnesia, better known as short-term memory loss. He must piece together a mystery as well as remind himself how to properly function through the use of tattoos, notes and Polaroid photographs. The advantage to such unique storytelling coupled with such a unique story means that we're kept in the dark until the very end, I can usually get a rough idea of how a film will end but Memento had me completely hoodwinked.

The sheer excellence of the story is aided by some highly stylized cinematography (in a Nolan film? Who knew?), which really aids the audience in getting more into the mind of this poor man who has to live in a continual loophole of lost memories. Guy Pearce turns in a fantastic performance that further amplifies his versatility as an actor, his performance is filled with maturity and genuine emotion. Not bad when you consider that he made his name as an actor on Neighbours. His performance is so engaging as well as harrowing that you become just as determined as him to find out what he wants to know. You will also find yourself in a sense of despair when he is constantly tricked into doing things that he otherwise wouldn't do due to his 2-3 minute memory span, which is sometimes even a few seconds if he doesn't focus hard enough.

Never a dull moment to be had, Memento is powerful in its eclectic blend of unorthodox storytelling and human psychology. You will be eager to know what happens next and you'll be blown away by the film's thrilling conclusion which is so cleverly executed that you'll have to re-watch it again and again as more and more theories on what's actually going on become apparent. Forget The Dark Knight, in my mind, this is Christopher Nolan's best film.

Memento is available in the College Library in a 1 disc edition format, it has a 15 certificate.

Thomas Broome-Jones is on Twitter, you can follow him @TBroomey.