Memento (2000)

Memento is about a guy with short-term memory loss. The film begins with him murdering somebody. The narrative of the film is told backwards, which is a little unique. The viewer soon learns that the man's wife had been killed and he was attacked during her murder, causing his memory problems. As the film is told backwards, there is no surprise killer at the end - the film instead explores why he is going to murder someone and how he concluded who to kill.

The lead is played by Guy Pierce. By definition, his character can't undergo any profound changes as he forgets everything, but Pierce makes the roll work. He is reasonably convincing in his role as a man with short-term memory loss.

Overall, this wasn't bad. The film received a great deal of praise amongst the scientific community for being close to accurate, but I'm still not convinced it's all that accurate. As psychology is my area of expertise, I think the film had a few problems. I have seen video of actual patients with short-term memory loss, and they seem a lot more confused than the lead in this film. He is able to sustain very long conversations and he understands his disorder. This does not happen in real life. Still, it's accurate enough and it is a movie so this flaw can be overlooked.

80/100
B-

UP NEXT: The 1966 version of Madame X

Definitely bizarre. I liked Guy Pierce better in Time Machine.