I went into this knowing it was going to be a completely different movie than anything I had ever seen before, and that was unsurprisingly the case. It managed to be even more unique and different than I expected. I must admit, I was a little nervous going into it because I knew that it was notorious for being confusing, like a lot of Christopher Nolan’s films are. If I’m being completely honest, Nolan’s nonlinear storytelling isn’t really on my wavelength – I prefer more of his traditional movies, but I still enjoyed Memento, though it didn’t “wow” me like I was hoping it would.

The premise itself gives you that itch you want to scratch, which is of course always a good thing. The main character, Leo, is trying to track down the man that killed his wife but has a hard time doing so due to a mental issue he has where he can’t form new memories. I was immediately intrigued from the start, with him talking to different characters and them remembering him, but he not being sure if he had met them or not. It kept me invested in the movie, even if I was having a hard time following along with what was happening. I knew that the main objective was but didn’t understand the different parts of the investigation and such.

From a filmmaking perspective, the contrast between Nolan’s direction in his first film, Following, and Memento is quite extraordinary. I know he had a much bigger budget, but the overall cinematic quality of this film was just a lot higher, and even then, you can tell Nolan was just a better director at that point in time. The biggest improvement would have to be the way he directed the actors. In Following, the acting felt a bit amateurish and stale, and even though it was a solid film debut, it definitely had that “student film” feel to it. Memento doesn’t have that at all, and the acting was quite excellent to say the very least.

Leo was a really interesting character of course because of his condition. He didn’t ever know anything other than that he wanted to find the man who murdered his wife. His want for revenge wasn’t glorified, which I was glad, and was instead explored in a more unique way that I have never seen before. Because of his condition, Leo is unable to get over his grief, and thus, can’t get rid of his want for vengeance. This was an extremely compelling character arc.

As I said though, while I enjoyed this film, I really had a hard time following along with it. I’m just not on the same page as Chris Nolan when it comes to telling stories in this way, so even though it was enjoyable, I wouldn’t say it’s a film that’s going to stick with me or a film that I’m going to eventually want to rewatch. It probably was made to be a movie where the more you watch it, the more you understand it and get out of it, but I just don’t like that principle when it comes to movies. This unfortunately meant the moments towards the end that were supposed to be shocking did not have much of an impact on me at all.

Far from a bad movie, in fact I enjoyed it, just not quite my cup of tea.