Memento

2000 • 113 minutes

À propos de ce film

A man is determined to find justice after the loss of a loved one, even though he is incapable of fully remembering the crime, in this offbeat thriller. Leonard (Guy Pearce) is a man who is struggling to put his life back together after the brutal rape and murder of his wife. But Leonard's problems are different from those of most people in his situation; he was beaten severely by the same man who killed his wife. The most significant manifestation of Leonard's injuries is that his short-term memory has been destroyed; he is incapable of retaining any new information, and must resort to copious note-taking and Polaroid photographs in order to keep track of what happens to him over the course of a day (he's even tattooed himself with a few crucial bits of information he can't get along without). Leonard retains awareness that his wife was brutally murdered, however, and he's convinced that the culprit still walks the streets. Leonard is obsessed with the notion of taking revenge against the man who has ruined his life, and he sets out to find him, getting help from Natalie (Carrie-Anne Moss), who appears to be a sympathetic barmaid, and Teddy (Joe Pantoliano), who claims to be Leonard's friend, even though Leonard senses that he cannot be trusted.

Notes et avis

I agree with others who say the big draw of this movie is Guy Pearce. He's the strength of the movie. Without him and how good he acts; the rest of the movie is basically an unwatchable episode of one of my mother's soap operas. I tend to think of Momento like Christopher Nolan's "let me try something unorthodox" attempt at movie making. Smart strategy. He's british. Which means aside from his first film; Following; which I've never seen; or his third film Insomnia with Al Pacino and Robin Williams; Warner Brothers doesn't touch some relative no-name like Nolan for the Batman trilogy unless Momento was a hit. I see him and Michael Mann as similar directors who take a non-traditional step. It takes a smart talented person to recognize what a film can do without; or take a different/unexpected approach.

One of Nolan's earlier and much more artistic films. I absolutely love the direction of such a chaotically paced and jumbled up story where we ourselves get put in Leonard's predicament and we will have to be in every detail that's been shown to Leonard as much as possible, or we, like him.. will surely get lost in our own short term memory deficiency LOL .. Nolan made it with this one.. but his best (The Prestige) was still yet to come!

Doesn't really tie up all the loose ends, and the payoff at the end is unfulfilling. The movie comes off as pretentious. It wants to be clever and unorthodox, but it all falls flat overall. On the plus side, Guy Pearce is serious eye candy. That alone bumped my review from one star to two stars.