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Memento (2000) – Movie Review
By Robert L. Jones | April 6, 2001
Guy Pearce lets his body language do the talking in "Memento"
Forget About It
[xrr rating=2.5/5]
Memento. Starring Guy Pearce, Carrie-Anne Moss, Joe Pantoliano, Mark Boone Junior, Russ Fega, Jorja Fox, Stephen Tobolowsky, Harriet Samson Harris, and Thomas Lennon. Screenplay by Christopher Nolan, based on a story by Jonathan Nolan. Directed by Christopher Nolan. (Newmarket Films, 2000, Color, 113 minutes. MPAA Rating: R.)
I am very much into suspense thrillers. However, I approached this one with a wary eye, as it was recommended by a friend who once suggested I see The Usual Suspects, the most flaccid “suspense” movie I’ve ever seen.
Memento is un-momentous for the same reason The Usual Suspects was: It requires the viewer to hang all his emotions on the gimmick peg. For example, I stopped watching The Usual Suspects about 3/4 into the movie.
“It was just, frankly, boring,” I told my friend. “I lost interest.”
My friend screamed at me that I missed the big shock ending, in which the Keyser Soze MacGuffin is explained. I would’ve loved that movie, I was told, if I had simply been patient enough to wait for the big payoff at the end.
I countered that Alfred Hitchcock’s movies also have big shock ending payoffs at the end, too, but that Hitch kept the viewer interested with taut suspense, a great plot and finely-honed dialogue.
So, I went into Memento with a little more patience. I stuck with this one until the bitter end, and it was indeed bitter.
The gimmick in this movie, which I picked up a third of the way into the inaction, is that it is shot in reverse time. Its hero, played by Guy Pearce, must have graduated from the Keanu Reeves School of Cardboard Acting, and suffers from a memory disorder. He can’t remember what happened the day before, so he must reconstruct it physically—with Polaroid shots and body tattoos—to recreate a history of his life, so as not to go totally insane. He also is tracking down a killer (a device borrowed from Hitch). Once he catches the real killer, he can exonerate himself.
But, the story is told with painstakingly pedantic scenes and awkwardly fake understatement. I had no sympathy for the hero at all, and if it weren’t for some very good acting by Carrie Ann Moss and Joe Pantoliano, I probably would have tuned out early.
The main problem with Memento is that it tries too hard to be a film noir for our times, while ignoring just what it was that made those dark movies so memorable. Combing my mind, I cannot even think of one lesser film noir that was less entertaining than Memento, and no, I’m not forgetting Johnny Stool Pigeon or Detour, either. As far as The Postman Always Rings Twice, Out of the Past, or White Heat, forget about it! Memento is so far out of their league that it’s an insult to compare this dreck with those great classics.
Watching movies requires, as we all know, the “willing suspension of disbelief.” And I’ve got plenty of that suspension: It keeps me well-entertained even by such formulaic movies as The Money Pit and Brian’s Song. When it comes to movies, I admit to being an escapist.
But, when something is so patently ridiculous that it defies belief, that’s where I draw the line. For example: In order to reconstruct his identity, Pearce been tattooed all over his torso. Okay, fine. I’ll buy that.
However, just look at those tattoos: The producers obviously wanted them to look so cool that they went whole hog, having a tattoo artist not just scrawl utilitarian messages on his body, but recreate the Sistine Chapel according to Marilyn Manson across his chest and arms. This one affectation comes off as more pretentious than Federico Fellini’s entire oeuvre.
Of course, there are not many scenes of Pearce actually getting a tattoo. They would be too laughable if actually explicated. However, I can imagine what one scene from the cutting room floor might look like:
PEARCE: I need this message tattooed.
TATTOO GUY: What does it say?
PEARCE: “He has a gun, and he’s coming for you.”
TATTOO GUY: That’s a lot of words, but if I just use navy blue, I can do it for you pretty cheap.
PEARCE: Cheap? I have $1000. Go to town, man.
TATTOO GUY: Where do you get all that money? I mean, you live in a fleabag hotel, with no obvious means of support.
PEARCE: I got it from Chris Nolan, my director. He said I’ve got to look “scary
cool.” Use this CD cover as an example for your fonts.
TATTOO GUY: Wow, that is cool. Motörhead’s “Sacrifice.” Lots of cool Goth script. This will go perfect with the one I did from that Mercyful Fate t-shirt you brought in last week.
PEARCE: Last week?
TATTOO GUY: Oh, yeah—right. Sorry, dude, forgot.
PEARCE: Anyways, we’re going after the MTV crowd: Nolan told me not to worry too much that there’s nothing really cool about me at all, at least not in the Robert Mitchum or Elvis sense. Nolan said, “image is everything,” so with these tattoos, and working out at the gym all day, so that my pecs look really ripped, I can’t lose.
TATTOO GUY: Bitchen, dude.
Of course, there is a bona-fide shock ending by the time this mess wraps up, but you’ll figure out that Pearce is the killer long before he does.
If you have the intestinal fortitude to sit through this half-hearted art-school film, I recommend Edward Dmytryk’s 1965 classic amnesia thriller Mirage as the perfect antidote. A tightly-shot suspense flick in the Hitchcock tradition, Gregory Peck doesn’t need pecs nor tattoos to deliver a convincing performance. Instead, he relies on Peter Stone’s crafty dialogue and brilliant plot. Peck also does something else that has eluded Christopher Nolan and Guy Pearce.
He acts.
Robert L. Jones is a photojournalist living and working in Minnesota. His work has appeared in Black & White Magazine, Entrepreneur, Hoy! New York, the New York Post, RCA Victor (Japan), Scene in San Antonio, Spirit Magazine (Canada), Top Producer, and the Trenton Times. Mr. Jones is a past entertainment editor of The New Individualist.
Topics: Dramas, Independent Films, Movie Reviews, Suspense Movies | Comments Off on Memento (2000) – Movie Review