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| SYNOPSIS |  |
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Leonard Shelby (Guy Pearce) is a man with no short-term memory. He hasn't been able to form memories since the night his wife was murdered. Now he's on a hunt to find the murderer but with no way of remembering the names, dates, places, facts and faces. Instead he tattoos himself with mementos of his search. When someone knows his name, he checks Polaroid's to see if he knows them. Does he like this person? Does he trust this person? Is this the killer? He doesn't know unless he's scribbled a note.
Don't worry about trying to empathize with Leonard because Writer/Director Christopher Nolan puts you right in Leonard's shoes. The initial revenge killing is the end of the story, and, like a person with no short-term memory, you never know what happened before the current scene. You live the story in reverse order. In one scene you see Leonard getting information from a person who knows him -- maybe a good person; maybe bad. In the next scene you see a previous meeting between the two which sheds more light on their relationship. Later still you see how they met. But is that all of the story? You've yet to find out... and you won't know everything until the last scene. By living it backwards, you, like Leonard, had no knowledge of what came before.
It's brilliant story telling. But you might get frustrated because you don't know what's going on. That's normal. In fact, that's the whole idea. Just sit back, try to relax (though that's difficult in this movie), and find out just how twisted and complex Leonard's world is.
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