Memento has been hailed by many as one of the best examples of a film that employs an unconventional structure to tell its story. Indeed, the reverse-chronological structure of Memento not only heightens the suspense of the plot, but thematically connects the viewer to the plight of the dangerously forgetful protagonist, Leonard. While Memento is certainly unique, many films have employed unusual structures and have been celebrated for their ingenuity with form.
In an article for Taste of Cinema, Alexandra Gandra writes, "The abstract shape of narrative content has been, for many times, flexed and twisted into mind-blowing effects, either playing with memory or morality, but always offering a shake-up of the most usual dramatic style." Films other than Memento that have played with shape and structure to acclaimed effect include Donnie Darko, (500) Days of Summer, The Prestige, Pulp Fiction, Citizen Kane, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, The Sweet Hereafter, and Peppermint Candy.
In some ways, the appeal of nonlinear storytelling is self-explanatory. The plot of a film like Memento, for instance, unfolds in unexpected ways, and we as viewers are privy to information that we might otherwise not know while being left in the dark about other important details that, in a normal storyline, would be obvious. The nonlinearity makes the narrative that much more compelling, like a puzzle to be solved or a game to be played.
An article in The Atlantic about linear vs nonlinear storytelling suggests that while nonlinear storytelling can appeal, audiences prefer linear narratives by and large. Max Green writes, "From epic poems, which often begin in medias res (in the middle of the action) to the works of modernist authors like Virginia Woolf and James Joyce, storytellers in intervening millennia have increasingly experimented with non-linear narrative, weaving timelines, perspectives, and scenes and disordering structure. 'Disrupting the presentation of a story and deranging the order in which we are fed information is ancient,” [H. Porter] Abbott says. “And it's part of the pleasure of narrative. The question is, when do you go too far?'"
