To be honest, I'm not going to give a review of the technical aspects of this film.  If you are interested in reading such, I'm sure there's about 200 of them available on this site.

Though it was not the first, Chris Nolan's Memento became a zenith of the hallmark pursuit of 1990s/2000s film themes: What is reality?  This theme appeared in movies as disparate as The Truman Show, The Matrix, Donnie Darko, and Vanilla Sky.  But, for several reasons, Nolan's treatment of the question is far more provocative than his peers (just as I thought his Dark Knight had more intellectual weight than any comic book movie deserves).

The plot is simple yet convoluted: Leonard transforms from mild-mannered insurance investigator to pseudo-amensiac vigilante after a blow to his head while attempting to defend his wife from two attackers, one of whom escapes after the attack and spurs Leonard's quest for retribution.  Because the blow crippled his short-term memory, his life becomes a collection of notes, Polaroids, and tattoos of facts.  It is a novel concept and well executed but I think most people respond to the reverse-linear storytelling (ie, the plot is told almost entirely backwards, slipping back every couple minutes to show what happened before this scene).  This may seem like a gimmick on paper but it is actually essential to the storytelling as it gives you a view into Leonard's illness.  One amusing scene finds him coming aware in a bathroom with a bottle of liquor in his hand, neither the viewer nor him knows how this came to be.  It's a clever technique that puts you in Leonard's place: Just what *does* this situation mean and how did I end up here? 

As the story draws to its close (or actually before the first act is over, more likely) you begin to understand why Leonard began the movie by shooting his "partner", Teddy.  Throughout the movie we are treated to black and white segments in which Leonard (following the direction of his first fact tattoo "Remember Sammy Jankis") recounts a former investigation that is linked to his current predicament, that explain his illness and how he relates to it.  His illness would have been a plot-hole without these segments (after all, if Leonard can't create new memories since the bash to the head during the attack, he would have no way to remember what this illness is).  Sammy was similarily afflicted and Leonard was on his case as an insurance investigator, thus presenting a past involvement with the illness for Leonard to understand in his own context.  If there is a reality or truth in these segments, it is not absolute.  We find at the end that Leonard was actually himself positioned in Sammy's role but has obscured the truth from himself because it is too painful.

In a larger sense, this movie suggests that our reality (What is existence if not provided with context?) can be manipulated to suit our own purposes; and at that it's not even reality we warp but our perception of it.  Leonard mentions at one point that memory is tricky and not to be trusted, coming quite close to showing the gun of the story at that moment.  But then, the viewer is likely to be too wrapped up in unraveling the story to actually put a philosophical importance on this bit.  But it's really the central aspect of the plot after we learn for the first time, as Leonard did, that he has fabricated events in his own memory to protect himself from reality.

But the fascinating thing (among many fascinating bits in this movie) is that Leonard has made himself a golem, or more accurately, has used the memory impairment to transform himself into a Calvinist god.  He thinks he has a heart but he really only has the last memory, an eternal heartbreak caused by watching his wife attacked and the man responsible escaping.  He has, essentially, proven the futility of even being a god.  Since he can not create new memories, he will be able to exact revenge but never savor it or live peacefully with what he's done; he'll always be on the search for a new kill, the very reason he dispatches Teddy.  There will be no relief from that final recollection: The man with no new memories unable to forget the old memories. 

Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: DVD
Video Occasion: Fit for Friday Evening
Suitability For Children: Not suitable for Children of any age