Memento Blu-Ray Review

• 10th Sep 2010

Has it really been 10 years already? Chris Nolan of course had already made his low budget debut with Following and it was this second effort that really put him on the film making map as a master storyteller. It also added another worthy notch to the fantastic Guy Pearce’s belt as one of today’s better actors.

And for a while Pearce did well for himself. He kept a toe in the Hollywood pool (Rules of Engagement, The Time Machine) and also in lower budget affairs (Ravenous, The Count of Monte Cristo, The Proposition). It’s high time we had him back in the limelight (and not playing pointless roles in Adam Sandler’ comedies), and looking back on his performance here it’s hard to resist him.

Memento of course concerns the tale of one Leonard Shelby and his quest to hunt down the man responsible for his wife’s death and his loss of his short term memory. The film is edited in a fashion that tests time, memory and even the reliability of the narrator.

The themes of memory have been covered to death on this flick as well as the story being edited in reverse, but to be honest it isn’t all in reverse.  The black and white moments run from the start in the correct order and then they meet up with the colour/backwards segments at the films end where we see black and white becoming colour. So although a backwards narrative is still a linear storyline, does both backwards and forwards happening at the same time still make a linear narrative. Perhaps so.

Blu-ray is the way forward and Memento finally get’s it’s conversion and it looks fine.  Never a film with a look of sheen to it, a little roughness is what is needed and retained in the film quality. The story is still gripping letting you laugh, sympathise and even despise characters as the film unfolds (or refolds).

The extras are as imported over from the 3 disc release but the one and only thing missing is a proper retrospective documentary with all involved.  There is a fairly informative commentary by Nolan, and two long interviews (one with Nolan, one with Pearce). There is also a decent if very grainy looking ‘anatomy of a scene’ which dissects the film further for film buffs.

The original short story Memento Mori is narrated by author Jonathan Nolan. There is also a decent shooting script to film comparison. Then there are the usual trailers, galleries and notes and of course an Easter egg in the form of The Beginning of the End, which I assume is the film re-edited from start to finish. I say assume as I couldn’t find it. But having seen it before on the DVD edition it is a problematic extra. Firstly the editing is annoying as each scene overlaps with repeated material – so you start a scene and then seconds later have it start again. A proper editor would have made this look smoother.  The other problem is that obviously the tale is destroyed and as the drama happens in reverse it gets less exciting and is to an extent revealed as a fairly basic narrative. This then, can make you lose a little respect for the film as a large part of its brilliance is its editing gimmick, a parlour trick! Thankfully Nolan’s subsequent work has been of a high calibre, as there are far too many one trick magicians out there.

Steven Hurst