Memento (2000)
★★★★ — Memento (2000)
I forgot why I liked this film. So I watched it again. And honestly, that's the best possible reason to revisit Memento, because the whole experience hinges on not knowing what's coming. Once it clicked back into place, I remembered exactly why this one has stuck around.
Memento is a great film. There's a very short list of thrillers that genuinely pull off the trick of making structure do the storytelling, and this is near the top of it. Christopher Nolan tells the story in reverse, essentially, and what could easily be a gimmick, a film school exercise dressed up as cinema, turns out to be one of the most elegant narrative decisions I can think of. Every piece of information lands at exactly the right moment. Every revelation hits you and the main character at the same time. You're not watching someone solve a puzzle. You're solving it with him, in the dark, with the same incomplete picture he's working from.
That's the thing that makes it work so beautifully. It doesn't feel like a trick being played on you. It feels like the only honest way to tell this particular story. The format mirrors the condition. You can't get ahead of it because the film won't let you, and that's not frustrating, it's thrilling.
In terms of genre, it sits somewhere between a murder mystery and a paranoid thriller, and if you enjoy either, this is going to scratch that itch. There's a similar pleasure here to what I felt watching L.A. Confidential, that slow, satisfying process of assembling something from fragments, never quite sure who to trust. Nolan also went on to do The Prestige, which plays similar games with structure and misdirection, and if you love one, you'll almost certainly love the other.
The film does belong to a particular category, though, and it's worth being upfront about it. Like Seven or The Sixth Sense, it's the kind of film you really can only fully experience once, on a first watch, totally cold. The second viewing, if you remember everything, becomes more of an appreciation exercise than a thriller. You're watching the mechanics rather than being caught up in them. That's not a criticism, exactly. It just means timing matters. If you've seen it before and it's been a while, maybe wait a bit longer. If you've never seen it, do not let anyone tell you a single thing about it before you do.
Because that first watch, genuinely going in blind, is something special. It's one of those rare films where the structure and the story are so perfectly matched that pulling either thread would unravel the whole thing. It holds together, and more importantly, it holds your attention completely.
Four stars. An absolute must for anyone who hasn't seen it. And for those who have, give it a few years. You'll forget why you loved it. Then you can find out all over again.
Rating: ★★★★ | Year: 2000 | Watched: 2025-04-08
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Related on Movies With Macca
More from Christopher Nolan: Insomnia (2002) · The Prestige (2006) · Inception (2010) · The Dark Knight Rises (2012)
More with Guy Pearce: L.A. Confidential (1997)
More from the 2000s: Kirikou and the Wild Beasts (2005) · Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy (2004) · Daredevil (2003) · Apocalypto (2006)
More mystery: Mononoke the Movie: The Phantom in the Rain (2024) · Mononoke the Movie: Chapter II - The Ashes of Rage (2025) · Carnival of Souls (1962) · One Way or Another (1975)
More thriller: Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956) · Angst (1983) · The Long Walk (2025) · Punishment Park (1971)
