Memento

This dazzling, highly original “anti-thriller” has a complex, jumbled narrative that, like the play and musical Merrily We Roll Along, moves backwards in time. Thus we begin with the climactic murder then regress through the events that led up to it. Matters are complicated by the fact that the killer (Guy Pearce) suffers from a rare form of amnesia, leaving him with no short-term memory. The mystery requires a lot of concentration, but the stunning final scene is ample reward. Not just an indulgence, the ingenious structure makes the point that memory, although unreliable, is what we depend upon for our sense of reality. We are not, however, likely to forget the name of writer/director Christopher Nolan, whose first film, the similar Following, signalled his brilliantly individual talent.

"...MEMENTO has the uniquely disorienting quality of a puzzle....It's the rare mystery in which every moment lives....Pearce's extraordinary performance lends even the smallest events the aura of a life-or-death search..."