Paul and I watched Memento last night. Wow! I’m definitely looking forward to rewatching it. Here are a few non-spoiling comments:

The backwards progression in time was perfect for this plot. All the mystery resided in the influence of the past, not in any future events.

The plot was amazingly tightly wound. Most movies are cluttered with extraneous scenes, pointless little bits of time fillers. Those same movies usually also omit elements essential to a good movie. But in Memento, every moment is essential to the plot. Nothing is expendable. Nothing is extraneous.

I have been reading and enjoying Ayn Rand’s Romantic Manifesto these past few days. So towards the end of the movie, I began wondering if the movie was entirely naturalistic. After all, Leonard seems driven by his past, most of which he cannot remember or comprehend. But the end of the movie proved me gloriously wrong. Leonard’s own conscious and deliberate choice, combined with his virtues, created his future.

I love this quote from Leonard, said in the beginning of the movie: “My wife deserves vengeance. Doesn’t make any difference whether I know about it. Just because there are things I don’t remember doesn’t make my actions meaningless. The world doesn’t disappear when you close your eyes, does it?” That statement has a rather different meaning at the end, no?

Here’s a final funny thought: In the first five minutes of the movie, I thought to myself, “Man, this guy needs a blog!”