Memento (2000)

Elevator Pitch

A man suffering from antegrade amnesia (the inability to form new memories) is searching for a man who was one of two men involving in the rape and killing of his wife. He has been an insurance investigator and is aware of the case of a man suffering from the same problem as him and he tells the story to the people he meets. He is helped, or not, by Natalie, a woman who works in a bar and by Teddy who seems to turn up all the time, and he uses polaroid photos with notes written on them and tattoes on his body as aides in his quest.

Content

An almost continuous sequence of scenes, some in colour (which run in reverse) and some in black and white (which run the the correct direction) in which Leonard meets people, confronts people, and attacks people many of whom are unknown to him (so it seems). He also sleeps with Natalie but no-one gets their gear off. So there are some flashes of violence and a great deal of confusion.

A View

I imagine that had I paid to watch this in the cinema, instead of viewing it for nothing on my home TV, I would have paid more attention. As it was I sat there waiting to be enlightened only to find that a lot of participation was required, so it was not until I was some way in that I realised that the colour sequences were being played in reverse, and that I was faced with a puzzle. Not really my style, but much praised by the critics, and now you know how it plays you could get more out of it than I did.