Memento

Memento is my favorite of all the films that Christopher Nolan has directed. It was based on a short story that his brother had written, which I have also read. The film's a very successful adaptation of the story, and the story itself is one of the most interesting and engaging setups in cinema, in my opinion. The protagonist has retrogade amnesia, and therefore is unable to make any short-term memories after being attacked by burglars. He now spends his days performing his own investigating, to the best that he can, as his wife was raped and murdered in the attack, and he believes that one of the attackers got away.

The fact that the opening scene was actually the ending scene was a really brave and interesting choice. It also definitely set up the tone and plot structure for the rest of the film. Having to figure out the story in reverse (As that's how it is shown to us) is very similar to how the main character has to figure out his memories by looking at them in retrospect after having forgotten them. The way that this film was made to replicate and correspond to the ideas of forgetting and repeating time was brilliantly done.

The temporal labyrinth is in the narrator's own mind. He even sets up his own obstacles for himself. In the end, when it is revealed that the narrator found and killed the real attacker long ago, and that he actually chooses to forget in order to continue the only semblance of a life that he knew how to live now with his condition and his wife gone, that to me was the most interesting component of the whole story. The actor who portrayed the protagonist was so charismatic, and the protagonist himself so likable, that this reveal almost ruined the experience of the film for me when I first watched it several years ago. However, now, I am able to appreciate the aspect of an unhappy ending, and it's added that much more to the film for me.