Memento
  written and directed by Chris Nolan
  starring Guy Pierce, Carrie-Anne Moss, Joe Pantoliano

       Since just after the dawn of film history and the application of editing was introduced, filmmakers have toyed with the manipulating our perceptions of time in their structure.  Most common in this are the use of flashbacks, flash forwards or prophesies, and, of course, literal time travel.  Other modes that are not as frequent, usually because they are confusing, are the criss-crossing found in such films, like the novels they are based upon, such as Catch-22 and Slaughterhouse-Five, or the practice of starting over in order to retell from another point of view which can be found in classics like Pulp Fiction and Go, and the not so classic He Said, She Said.
       Because there has been a century of this going on, I am surprised that someone could come up with such an original use for the practice as was done with Memento.  Not since Rashomon has a film had as good a reason to feature a distortion of time as we know it, and may I say, never, in an original screenplay not adapted from fiction, where this practice can be found much more often.
       Memento tells the story of Leonard Shelby (Guy Pierce of Ravenous), a man who has short-term memory loss requiring him to keep notes on Polaroids and on himself in the form of tattoos, all in a desperate attempt to find his wife's murderer.  He is helped and misguided by mysterious characters played by Carrie-Anne Moss (Red Planet) and Joe Pantoliano (La Bamba).  Aside from the fact that all these actors do a just job in their roles, the real character here, the one with the toughest role, is the audience.
       In order for writer/director Christopher Nolan to make the audience to relate to Shelby and what he's going through, the film is played in reverse.  The first scene we see is, chronologically, the last and vice versa.  What this does is let the audience go through a scene exactly how Shelby is going through it, with no idea what has happened before it.  The only advantage the viewer has is knowing what happened afterwards, giving us more of a shock, surprise, and piece to the puzzle than Shelby will ever be privy to.
       Already, at such an early start, Memento has the best chance at receiving an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay next year.  Although the actual structure was achieved in an episode of "Seinfeld", that was much more a causeless experiment than a worthy achievement in storytelling.  Though I'm usually not keen on surprise endings, Memento's is, if anything, a revelation as it is cunning, especially considering the twisted road that gets you there.

"Just so you know, with my memory, I'll keep going and going long after you and I have both 'finished'."