Backwards is told the story in the murder mystery Memento. Disturbed profoundly is the effect on audiences. Confused is the feeling until the tale ends in the beginning.
Written and directed by Christopher Nolan, and based on a short story created by his brother Jonathan Nolan, Memento is a bizarre and provocative art-house movie.
It explores the nature of the human beast in crisis, in this case when an individual is forced to construct his life out of fragments, many of which are illusionary or ambiguous. It examines the meaning of morality when context is missing, or the role of guilt when memories are destroyed. Are you guilty of a crime if you don't know you're committing one?
Watching Memento can be quite irritating at times, because of the unusual structure, and yet plot and characters are so deliciously twisted that you keep going. Memento rewards viewers handsomely by its climax, which opens up debate.
The story is deceptively simple when reduced to essentials. Our hero is a handsome, well-dressed man (Guy Pearce) who drives a Jag, has wads of cash but stays in flea-bag motels while he tries to complete his mission.
That horrifying mission is to summarily execute the man who raped and killed his beloved wife. In that incident, our hero was also struck in the head, causing brain damage.
While he remembers everything in detail before the blow, he retains absolutely no short-term memories beyond seconds or a couple of minutes. The only thing he really knows now, and shares, is that he suffers from this rare condition.
As a result, he must conduct his daily life, and his revenge mission, by documenting what happens in the few moments before he forgets it. He takes polaroids, scribbles notes, keeps a dossier on the rape-and-murder case and has 'useful' info tattooed on his body. But how reliable is this info?
The movie begins with a murder. Then Nolan takes us back to the beginning, one small, precise step at a time, playing out dozens of scenes that overlap to let you know exactly where you are in the structure. As the story moves backwards, you begin to understand motives, manipulations and the consequences of being a man with no new memories.
There are also black-and-white sequences cut in from one long telephone conversation that backgrounds the man's pre-movie life. That material will 'colour' the fresh scenes.
Other key people in the story -- the cop or crook played by Joe Pantoliano, the innocent bartender or fiendish villain played by Carrie-Anne Moss -- transform before our eyes as we go further back. It is a creepy, intoxicating process.
It helps that the movie is extremely well-acted by Pearce (Russell Crowe's sidekick from L.A. Confidential) by Moss (the sultry Canadian from The Matrix), and by Joe Pants (one of Hollywood's great character actors). Callum Keith Rennie, while underused, also has a featured role.
Backwards may it be, but Memento is unique and intoxicating.
(More on: Memento).
(This film is rated AA)
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