Memento

[Marcus Telcontar]

Okay sue me. I was slow getting to see this movie.

Right now I am trying to digest what I just saw. Incredibly well scripted, great acting.....

Actually, excuse me. I have to watch it again and work it out. Just goes to prove, there can be something original.

Now, can anyone actually work out what really happened????

9.5/10. Goes close to challenging for the best movie of the year and how the hell that POS Moulin Rogue was nominated before this brilliance is beyond me.

[CMJ]

What really happened....I believe most of what was told to Lenny near the end. Though the cop wasn't very trustworthy...he would have NO reason to lie(Leonard would forget anyways).

I think the film came out to early in the year to be remembered well by the Academy. At least it got 2 nominations though. :)

[Shawn]

The cop was telling the truth: Lenny had already killed the guy who raped and murdered his wife, and forgotten about it. But the cop continued to egg him on, setting him up to go after more guys and taking advantage of him where he could. And Lenny knew that he'd just forget about it the next day and it'd keep going on. So he set up the cop, Gammel, as the murderer and created a little puzzle for himself. That way, he knows he'll kill Gammel and the circle will end.

At least, that's what *I* understood from it... it's been a little while now since I saw it.

[Marcus Telcontar]

Done the spoiler text thingie - thanks COTF

I actually think that the cop was tellign the truth - but didn't add one or two things. I personally think Lenny's wife is very much alive and is in fact Natalie. Notice she acts in the same way that Sammy's wife did, testing Leonard. She also clearly knows whom he is and is not really surprised to see him in the Jag.

Sure, the cop did tell the truth and was using Leonard to get rd to drug dealing rivals - and yes, Leonard does have a moment of clarity and decides to break the cycle, that is agreed. But the real mystery is.... what happened, really happened to Leonard's wife?

Apart from that, I really dont have a clue. I watched it twice last night and it still has me mind screwed and thinking, and appreciating it's brilliance more.

10/10, cant be any less.

[CMJ]

Hmmmmm.....SPOILERS






























Interesting notion about Natalie. I believe you are mistaken, nonetheless interesting. I believe Lenny killed his wife like he "remembers" Sammy Jankis doing. Remember the quick image of Lenny in the mental ward, and then it's Sammy(ala "Fight Club"). I agree the film was brilliant...one of the best of last year thats for certain.

[Champion of the Force]

Sorry, I dont know how to do that spoiler text thing

{spoiler}Spoiler goes here{/spoiler}

Replace {} with []

Once again, I'll restate that all these things are listed in the FAQ. :)

[Marcus Telcontar]

CMJ, that's the beauty of this film.... There is clearly an answer, but what answer you have to find it. I think it will be the subject to dissection for many years to come, as you could present very, very good arguments for any number of point of views and still be seen to be right.

Definantly one thing is right... you have to look at facts with this moive and not rely on memories of Leonard.

Geez, just brilliant Memento is. Brilliant. And Natalie, whatever she is, is the most incredible manipulator. I think my jaw hit the ground when it's revealed who bashed her and how.

http://www.salon.com/ent/movies/feature/2001/06/28/memento_analysis/index.html

This is a good argument. Dont read this link if you have not seen the moive.

[CMJ]

That was a great analysis. I read a similar one a few months ago..lemme see if I can find it.

[JonathanLB]

I loved Memento, I cannot believe that it wasn't nominated for Best Picture yet absolute trash like Gosford Park and In the Bedroom were. Whatever, the Academy has no taste at all.

[Marcus Telcontar]

I loved Memento, I cannot believe that it wasn't nominated for Best Picture yet absolute trash like Gosford Park and In the Bedroom were. Whatever, the Academy has no taste at all.

While I have not seen IN the Bedroom or Gosford Park, I do say that there is no way known Moulin Rouge should have gained a nomination before Memento. One is a hokey love story, the other is an insanely clever thriller.

One is the reason movies exist.

The other is vomit.


Memento deserves every cent, every award it can get

[JonathanLB]

I really hope Moulin Rouge is not as bad as you say, haha, or I'm really going to be mad about that. I'm going to see it perhaps tonight, but definitely in the next few days. I must review it before my site launches.

I can tell you really do not like that film, though, lol. Even without seeing it I can obviously say it is not the type of movie that should be nominated above Memento. No love story deserves a nomination over an intellectual film like Memento that takes a few viewings to understand fully. Plus, the script for Memento is so good.

[darth_mcbain]

Hey... I liked Moulin Rouge. Though I'm not going to get into an argument over which should have been nominated, that or Memento, because I liked both of them.

[Shawn]

I liked Moulin Rouge, as well. Although I do consider Memento the superior movie by a safe margin.

[Jedi Master Carr]

I agree with you CMJ that was his wife that he was thinking about, the cop basically told him that I also know why it didn't get nominated for best picture, it was released too early, I can only think of one movie that was released before April that won best picture (I can't remember if there was anything nominated or not) and that was Silence of the Lambs which got released in February that is why nobody gave it a chance in the Oscars because people thought it was long forgotten (and nobody thought a horror film would win) but I think SOTL was one of those wierd film nobody could forget, I know I sure can't forget the first time I saw it, it about scared me to death.

[CMJ]

There have been a few films nominated that came our REALLY early in the year("Frago" comes to mind) bu they are few and far between you're right. :)

[JonathanLB]

What do you expect?

Most of these people are like 75 or older, they can hardly remember what they ate for breakfast this morning let alone what good movies came out months ago!! There is a place for people like that. It's called a retirement home! :)

[Jedi Master Carr]

Man that's cruel Jon:lol Really I think its just that other movies just outshine, I guess it takes a special movie like SOTL and Gladiator comes to mind too(it was released in May and very few movies get nominated from that time as well), to be able to overcome that problem