(C) TORONTO SUN
October 7, 2001
DVDs: Memento madness

By BRUCE KIRKLAND -- Toronto Sun

Memento is one of the most fascinating films of the new millennium, and not just because it is constructed backwards, drives plot- fretting people nuts and has crossed over into the mainstream from the arthouse ghetto.

English director Christopher Nolan's American crime thriller is enhanced the more you watch it, the more you know all the details of the whodunnit part and the more you break it all down into its essential elements. No detail is too small for close examination.

Usually in murder mysteries, once the mystery is solved, you lose interest. Alfred Hitchcock is dead and most new Hollywood movies in this genre don't stand up to scrutiny.

But Memento does and does so brilliantly. When I first reviewed it last March, I called it "unique and intoxicating," but groused about how infuriating it was on occasions because "backwards is told the story" and "confused is the feeling until the tale ends in the beginning."

While I praised the sterling cast led by Guy Pearce, Joe Pantoliano and Carrie-Anne Moss, I wasn't entirely satisfied. I am now, or at least much more so. I watched the movie again and have also started to watch the pieces of the movie in chronological order. Memento is becoming an obsession. I would rate it four out of five stars today instead of the three I gave it in March.

Memento arrived on VHS and DVD in September, from Columbia TriStar Home Video in the U.S. and Alliance Atlantis in Canada.

Alas, the differences in the two DVDs are notable, and unfortunately you need both of them to arm yourself with the investigative tools to complete the job.

The only thing the discs share is an excellent widescreen print enhanced for 16:9 ratio TVs, so Memento looks great. Because of rights issues, most of the extras are available only on the American disc (damn!). That includes the dazzling animated menus, a 24-minute interview with Christopher Nolan, the complete text of his brother Jonathan Nolan's short story Memento Mori, trailers and TV spots, cast & crew bios and -- one of the most tantalizing extras of them all -- a tattoo gallery in which you get up close and personal with Pearce's provocative body messages, crucial to the plot.

The Canadian disc lacks all this stuff. But what is does have is a 45-chapter breakdown of the film (the U.S. disc has only 19 chapters). And there is an option on the Canadian disc -- after you click on the scratched-out option on the right in the main menu -- that allows you to play those 45 segments in chronological order instead of the jumbled, backwards fashion of the original.

This option is set up poorly -- you have to activate each segment individually and can't play all of them in order with a single click - - but even having that option at all is remarkably useful in dissecting the film and feeding the obsession.