--- title: "Memento: the reviews" canonical: "https://film.one/film/memento/reviews" title_page: "https://film.one/film/memento" critics_score: 84 critics_reviews: 9 licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Memento (2000): what the critics said Critics' score 84 from 9 reviews: 8 positive, 1 mixed, 0 negative. Most critics greet Memento with strong enthusiasm, praising a reverse chronology that makes the audience share its protagonist’s uncertainty rather than merely admire a clever puzzle. The reviews repeatedly credit the structure with sustaining suspense and making questions about memory, identity and perception part of the thriller’s action. Guy Pearce’s performance draws particular praise, with Joe Pantoliano also singled out. Several critics find wit and humour alongside the disorientation, giving the intricate plotting some welcome lightness. The main disagreement concerns what remains once the puzzle is solved. Most critics find substance in the film’s treatment of unreliable memory, but The New York Times admires the ingenuity while finding the confusion artificial and the insight limited. That is a distinct minority position in a strongly positive spread: the reservations concern the film’s lasting impact more than its ability to keep an audience occupied. ## Radio Times — David McGillivray Rating 5/5. This dazzling, highly original anti-thriller features a complex jumbled narrative that moves backwards in time and is complicated by the protagonist's short-term memory loss. The ingenious structure rewards concentration and underscores that memory, though unreliable, shapes our sense of reality. [Read the review](https://www.radiotimes.com/movie-guide/b-58gv7q/memento/) ## The Guardian — Peter Bradshaw Fi1m's normalised score 90/100 (inferred from the text). 20 October 2000. Bradshaw calls Nolan's follow-up to Following a terrific, exciting, demanding, agile, sly, witty and fun film that keeps viewers off-balance with its fragmented structure about memory, time and identity. He singles out the complex thriller plotting, performances (especially Guy Pearce and Joe Pantoliano) and the shocking twist for praise. [Read the review](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2000/oct/20/1) ## Total Film Fi1m's normalised score 90/100 (inferred from the text). 20 October 2000. The review lauds the film's clever non-linear structure that mirrors the protagonist's memory loss, calling it a masterful execution of a complex concept with excellent leads and rewarding suspense and humor. [Read the review](https://www.gamesradar.com/memento-review/) ## Empire — Angie Errigo Fi1m's normalised score 85/100 (inferred from the text). 1 January 2000. The critic praises Nolan's imaginative and challenging exploration of memory and time through a reversed narrative structure in this compelling murder mystery, highlighting the strong performances especially Pearce's. [Read the review](https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/memento-review/) ## Los Angeles Times — Kenneth Turan Fi1m's normalised score 85/100 (inferred from the text). 22 January 2001. Festival review. The critic praises Nolan for succeeding with an intricate, despairing premise that increases tension by telling the story backward. It places the audience inside the protagonist's head, turning a simple story into something complex and disorienting. [Read the review](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2001-jan-22-ca-15442-story.html) ## Variety — Lisa Nesselson Fi1m's normalised score 85/100 (inferred from the text). 14 September 2000. Festival review. The critic hails the film as a bravura, ingeniously structured puzzle with Einstein-caliber dexterity in deconstructing time for a disturbing revenge tale. Excellent performances and editing sustain the mystery until a punch-packing resolution. [Read the review](https://variety.com/2000/film/awards/memento-1200464278/) ## The New Yorker — Anthony Lane Fi1m's normalised score 80/100 (inferred from the text). 12 March 2001. The critic finds the film's reverse structure and memory-loss premise swift, sly, and dazzling, delivering a real kick despite its complexities. It evokes a wasted, dusty Los Angeles landscape and a sense of living death in Leonard's ritualistic quest. [Read the review](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2001/03/19/how-did-i-get-here-2) ## The Times — Adam Mars-Jones Fi1m's normalised score 80/100 (inferred from the text). 19 October 2000. Mars-Jones describes Memento as a successful thriller with an original twist, highlighting the amnesiac hero's use of Polaroids and tattoos to navigate short-term memory loss while pursuing his wife's killer. He notes the film's effective suspense and questions of truth, responsibility and perception. [Read the review](https://www.thetimes.com/travel/destinations/north-america-travel/us-travel/california/the-scariest-in-dying-memory-95gnqv8m9z6) ## The New York Times — A. O. Scott Fi1m's normalised score 60/100 (inferred from the text). 16 March 2001. The critic calls the film a brilliant feat of rug-pulling that delights fans of twisty thrillers but finds it ultimately fails to leave much of an impression. It favors sensation and artificial confusion over genuine insight into human reality. [Read the review](https://www.nytimes.com/2001/03/16/movies/film-review-backward-reel-the-grisly-memories.html) ## Screen Daily 24 January 2001. Festival review. Nolan's stylish revisitation of the amnesia thriller maintains expert narrative tension through its backward structure and voice-over, resulting in a gripping and intellectually satisfying film that sparks post-screening discussion. Guy Pearce's performance mixes determination and humility effectively. [Read the review](https://www.screendaily.com/memento/404805.article) ## Sight and Sound The critic praises Nolan's innovative backward narrative as a compelling psychological puzzle that mirrors the amnesiac protagonist's condition and forces the viewer into investigative work. It delivers noir twists that ultimately question the hero's motives and innocence. [Read the review](http://old.bfi.org.uk/sightandsound/review/441) ## Slant Magazine 2 May 2001. The critic notes that the backward narrative compels viewers to inhabit the protagonist's perspective and underscores the untrustworthy, duplicitous nature of memory, allowing the character to perpetually recreate false realities. [Read the review](https://www.slantmagazine.com/film/memento/) ## The AV Club — Scott Tobias 5 September 2000. The critic describes the film's complex reverse-chronology structure as an exhausting but masterful exercise in narrative architecture that ultimately delivers profound existential insights into memory and self-deception beyond mere gimmickry. [Read the review](https://www.avclub.com/memento-1798192463) --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Our review: https://film.one/film/memento.md