Rotten Tomatoes Logo Do you want to see ‘Memento’?

Memento (2000)

tomatometer

92

Average Rating: 8.2/10
Reviews Counted: 154
Fresh: 142 | Rotten: 12

Christopher Nolan skillfully guides the audience through Memento's fractured narrative, seeping his film in existential dread.

89

Average Rating: 7.7/10
Critic Reviews: 36
Fresh: 32 | Rotten: 4

Christopher Nolan skillfully guides the audience through Memento's fractured narrative, seeping his film in existential dread.

audience

93

liked it
Average Rating: 4/5
User Ratings: 320,699

My Rating

Movie Info

A man is determined to find justice after the loss of a loved one, even though he is incapable of fully remembering the crime, in this offbeat thriller. Leonard (Guy Pearce) is a man who is struggling to put his life back together after the brutal rape and murder of his wife. But Leonard's problems are different from those of most people in his situation; he was beaten severely by the same man who killed his wife. The most significant manifestation of Leonard's injuries is that his short-term

R, 1 hr. 56 min.

Mystery & Suspense, Drama

Christopher Nolan, Jonathan Nolan

Sep 4, 2001

$23.8M

Newmarket Films

Cast

All Critics (154) | Top Critics (36) | Fresh (153) | Rotten (12) | DVD (57)

More a puzzle than a meaningful story, it reminds me of how Edmund Wilson compared reading a mystery to eagerly unpacking a box of excelsior, only to find a few rusty nails at the bottom.

September 27, 2011 Full Review Source: Chicago Reader | Comments (3)
Chicago Reader
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Memento is one of those jigsaw puzzles whose pieces snap together more tightly with each viewing. Fueling it all is a performance by Guy Pearce that's as indelible as the tattoo ink covering his body.

February 17, 2011 Full Review Source: Entertainment Weekly | Comment
Entertainment Weekly
Top Critic IconTop Critic

I am neither upset nor disturbed by Memento , only vaguely dissatisfied. I simply don't buy Jonathan Nolan's thesis that audiences know all the tropes and tricks of crime thrillers backward and forward.

April 27, 2007 Full Review Source: New York Observer | Comments (5)
New York Observer
Top Critic IconTop Critic

It's all pretty confusing, but then again, so were many of the classic film noirs.

September 26, 2002 Full Review Source: New York Magazine | Comment (1)
New York Magazine
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Christopher Nolan's extraordinary film is a brainteaser and a heartbreaker.

September 7, 2001 Full Review Source: Atlanta Journal-Constitution | Comment
Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Top Critic IconTop Critic

A diabolical and absorbing experience.

April 13, 2001 Full Review Source: Chicago Sun-Times | Comment (1)
Chicago Sun-Times
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Occasionally the film trips over its own complexity, but it's tense, devious and evokes Leonard's disorientation quite brilliantly. Operation of heavy machinery after watching is a definite no-no.

September 27, 2011 Full Review Source: Film4 | Comment

A brilliantly told mindbender, a perfect example of how the right approach to storytelling can elevate a film

March 18, 2011 Full Review Source: Times-Picayune | Comment
Times-Picayune

To believe in the objectivity of the image and the word is to be lead into darkness in Christopher Nolan's extraordinary meta-noir.

March 3, 2011 Full Review Source: Slant Magazine | Comment
Slant Magazine

Nolan built a better mousetrap of a neo-noir, using the tricky gimmick of a complex, purposefully disorienting narrative. [Blu-ray]

February 22, 2011 Full Review Source: Groucho Reviews | Comment

Innovative movie with a mature premise.

January 1, 2011 Full Review Source: Common Sense Media | Comments (2)
Common Sense Media

More than an enigmatic, jittery, occasionally funny treatise on vengeance's fruitlessness, "Memento" never abandons an emotional quandary: How can a man unable to feel time expect to heal? Leonard loses himself, as we all do, in habit and repetition.

September 19, 2010 Full Review Source: Suite101.com | Comment
Suite101.com

Christopher Nolan's breakthrough feature is a terrific film noir, witty, inventive, thrilling and intriguing from the first frame to the very last.

July 16, 2010 Full Review Source: EmanuelLevy.Com | Comment

Nolan's sophomore effort is a near peerless psychological thriller.

July 10, 2009 Full Review Source: Cinemania | Comment

"Memento" is a crime-revenge story that relies on its one big gimmick.

May 20, 2009 Full Review Source: ColeSmithey.com | Comments (36)
ColeSmithey.com

Writer-director Christopher Nolan toys with our minds as each scene ends where the previous scene began in a sort of tidal regression and progression of story and character.

August 7, 2008 Full Review Source: Sacramento News & Review | Comment
Sacramento News & Review

The film is cool, contemplative, a puzzle movie in which you see the finished puzzle right up front and then watch as it disassembles itself.

March 11, 2008 Full Review Source: eFilmCritic.com | Comment
eFilmCritic.com

Of all the ironies which fill the film, the most complementary may be that this is film which will not soon be forgotten.

July 14, 2007 Full Review Source: Big Picture Big Sound | Comment
Big Picture Big Sound

Just when you thought film noir was dead and buried, along comes the memorably mind-bending Memento.

October 23, 2006 Full Review Source: Boulder Weekly | Comment

There are plenty of questions swirling around to make this little snow globe fascinating. Even moments in the narrative that could be obvious are given an interesting twist because of the main character's condition.

September 16, 2006 Full Review Source: Movie Metropolis | Comment
Movie Metropolis

There's grade A work from all concerned, especially Pearce, but in the end this is Nolan's film. And he delivers, with a vengeance.

February 9, 2006 Full Review Source: Time Out | Comment
More Critic Reviews

Audience Reviews for Memento

A film with a sporadic plot, sideways actions of a group of characters whose motives are unclear, and a range of interesting ensuing clues and concerns that makes up this disjointed venture from masterful director and writer Christopher Nolan. The film works in the same vein as other mind bending films, using the

July 29, 2010
FrizzDrop

Super Reviewer

An ex insurance investigator with a medical condition that leaves him with no short term memory is hunting the killer of his wife with the aid of notes left to himself in the form of tattoos all over his body. Christopher Nolan's big budget debut is a stunningly original twist on the detective movie formula, telling

October 29, 2006
garyX
xGary Xx

Super Reviewer

    1. Leonard Shelby: Can't remember to forget you.
    – Submitted by Farzan N (13 days ago)
    1. Leonard: I don't feel drunk.
    – Submitted by Elizabeth G (3 months ago)
    1. Leonard: [running] OK, so what am I doing?
    2. Leonard: [sees DODD also running] Oh, I'm chasing this guy.
    3. Leonard: [DODD shoots at Leonard] No... he's chasing me.
    – Submitted by Prabhat R (5 months ago)
    1. Leonard: We all lie to ourselves to be happy.
    – Submitted by Prabhat R (5 months ago)
    1. Leonard: The world doesn't just disappear when you close your eyes, does it?
    – Submitted by Prabhat R (5 months ago)

Latest News for Memento

July 13, 2010:
Tomatometer Watch: Inception Gets First Rotten Review
"From the director of 'The Dark Knight'." Those words impart some serious expectations for...

July 20, 2009:
Five Favourite Films with Duncan Jones
Duncan Jones has done the impossible -- tell a smart, engaging and entertaining sci-fi story on a...

What's Hot On RT

RT on DVD & Blu-Ray
RT on DVD & Blu-Ray

Twilight: Breaking Dawn Part 1

Critics Consensus
Critics Consensus

Woman in Black is Solid

The Avengers!
The Avengers!

Five new Marvelous pictures

Total Recall
Total Recall

Unconventional Superheroes

Top Movie Quizzes

LEGO Mania: 2011 Best Picture Nominees
by natalie - 18,470 taken
created 12 months ago
How Much Do You Know About Leonardo DiCaprio?
by natalie - 44,197 taken
created 15 months ago
Pixar Movies!
by jdikwlzviv - 27,022 taken
created 15 months ago
The Wizards of Harry Potter
by jdikwlzviv - 27,529 taken
created 15 months ago

Foreign Titles

  • Memento 10th Year Anniversary Special Event (DE)
  • Memento 10th Year Anniversary Special Event (UK)
Help | About | Jobs | Newsletter | Critics Submission | API | Licensing | Blog | Developers | Mobile