Review: Insomnia (2002)
Steve Rhodes
A film review by Steve Rhodes
Copyright 2002 Steve Rhodes
RATING (0 TO ****): ***
INSOMNIA, the second major film by Christopher Nolan, is a most ironic movie --
but not in the way you might expect. After making one of the most
unconventional thrillers in motion picture history (MEMENTO), Nolan decided to
remake the quite unusual 1997 Norwegian film INSOMNIA, which starred Stellan
Skarsgård. The irony is that Nolan's version is a completely conventional, big
budget Hollywood thriller filled with star power, including Oscar winners Al
Pacino (SCENT OF A WOMAN), Hilary Swank (BOYS DON'T CRY) and Robin Williams
(GOOD WILL HUNTING). I expected Nolan to magnify the original's unconventional
aspects, not to diminish them. Don't get me wrong, the result is solid
entertainment from start to finish, but it is certainly nothing worth putting on
best of the year lists as MEMENTO definitely was. (MEMENTO was my top pick last
year.)
Basically a one man picture, it stars Al Pacino as Will Dormer, a cop who can't
get enough sleep. Both versions of INSOMNIA were set in a land where the sun
never sets in summer. This time the action happens in a breathtaking Alaska.
Dormer and his L.A. detective partner, played by Martin Donovan (HOLLOW REED),
have been sent way up north to help investigate the murder of a teenage girl.
Although it may not appear to be the work of a serial killer, Will says that he
thinks that other murders will follow. Probably the best part of the original
was the way that insomnia dominated the entire story; with Skarsgård making it
so palpable that you began to feel downright woozy. This time, the impact of
the insomnia isn't really emphasized until close to the end.
Hilary Swank plays Ellie Burr, a cop who has worshiped Will from afar and is
happy to tag along in this investigation. Before this murder, she has been
assigned to nothing but misdemeanors. Since Will is something of a Sherlock
Holmes, with a dash of Serpico thrown in to spice up the mix, Ellie is elated
about watching the master in action.
Robin Williams plays Walter Finch, a local writer who was a friend of the
murdered girl. His performance is effective but a tad bland.
The tense and atmospheric film has plenty of twists, although many of them are
easy to guess. The treat is watching veteran actor Pacino at work. There
aren't many like him. As you leave, however, you'll likely be thinking more of
Nolan than Pacino and hoping that Nolan returns to his unconventional roots for
his next picture.
INSOMNIA runs 1:55. It is rated R for "language, some violence and brief
nudity" and would be acceptable for most teenagers.
The film opens nationwide in the United States on Friday, May 24, 2002. In the
Silicon Valley, it will be showing at the AMC and the Century theaters.
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Robin Clifford
Veteran LA detective Will Dormer (Al Pacino) and his partner Hap Eckhart
(Martin Donovan) are shipped, on loan, to the Nightmute, Alaska police
department to help the local cops investigate the brutal murder of a
17-year old girl. Will hatches a plan to trap the killer, but an
unfortunate mistake by one of the local officers forces a chase after the
perp through thick fog. Dormer gets the drop on the guy and fires at the
shadowy, fleeing figure. But, it isn't the bad guy he shoots, it's his
partner in the American remake of Norwegian thriller in "Insomnia."
The interpretation, by novice scribe Hillary Seitz, of the original 1997
screenplay by Nicolaj Frobenius and Erik Skjoldbjaerg of the same named
flick starring Stellan Skarsgard contains some subtle tongue in cheek
touches that may not be obvious immediately. Detective Dormer, on the case
in the land of the unending summer day, suffers from severe insomnia for
the days. (It wasn't until the next day that I remembered that the French
word dormir means to sleep. You don't see this kind of attention to detail
and humor in your average Hollywood script.) The change to an Alaska locale
and the reason why LA cops would investigate a murder way up north are not
a problem, especially with such talents as Pacino and Robin Williams as the
object of Will's pursuit, Walter Finch.
Pacino and Williams are the keys to "Insomnia." Pacino is a great actor and
is able to convey the steadily increasing haggardness his character feels
as he goes for days without sleep. You can feel the edginess and the
sand-in-the-eyes feeling of the exhausted cop as he tries to cope with the
constant, unrelenting daylight, sleeplessness and guilt over killing his
partner.
Williams continues to pull away from the schmarmy characters he has played
in the recent past (think of the gagging treacle of "Patch Adams" and the
rank sentimentality of "Bicentennial Man). With his perf in "Death to
Smooch" (one of the few good things about that movie) the actor shifted
over to the dark side and appears to be on a roll with the latter film,
"Insomnia" and the up and coming "One Hour Photo." It's a little strange,
almost spooky, watching the man that personified goofy comedy improv and
impersonation perform in edgy dramatic roles that are totally out of his
normal comedy characters.
Academy Award winner Hillary Swank has not lived up to the reputation that
the Oscar conveyed on her as Best Actress ("Boys Don't Cry"). She was
outclassed by everyone else in "The Affair of the Necklace" and comes
across poorly opposite Pacino. She is supposed to be an idolizing young cop
who puts the veteran Dormer on a pedestal, but acts more like a little kid
than a cop. The sidebar story of her investigation of Hap's death is
necessary but feels tacked on. Swank doesn't have a lot to do, here, and
doesn't do anything with it.
Maura Tierney in a tiny role as the innkeeper of the small town is totally
effective in a small perf opposite Pacino. Her presence is so prominent in
her brief scenes that I wonder what was left on the cutting room floor. I
think the actress should have been cast as Swank's character. She could
well have given a superior performance. Tierney is under appreciated as an
actor, in my opinion.
Techs are fine across the board, especially camera work by Wally Pfister
("Memento"). The film looks great and scenes such as the chase in the fog
or across a log-choked river are exciting and different from the routine
stuff we normally get from a Hollywood thriller. The exterior shots are
outstanding, especially the opening as Will and Hap fly over the snow
covered mountains on their way to the investigation.
Helmer Christopher Nolan, on the heels of his tremendously successful indie
hit, "Memento," goes mainstream, but his skilled eye and storytelling
ability make this a good film in its own right, not just a poor American
remake of a better foreign film. I give it a B.
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Harvey S. Karten
Rating out of 4 stars: 3
Reviewed by Harvey Karten
Warner Bros./Alcon Entertainment
Director: Christopher Nolan
Writer: Hilary Seitz
Cast: Al Pacino, Robin Williams, Hilary Swank, Martin Donovan
Maura Tierney
Screened at: Loews E-Walk, NYC, 5/21/02
If you're among the one-third of American adults who have
experienced insomnia for a prolonged period of time, you've
probably not been reading film reviews. You'd also know what
it's like to stare at the blinking digital figures as they light up on
3:13 a.m., 4:23 a.m. and then, just as you're about to go into
REM it's 7:30 and the alarm wakes you up with a start. You've
got to get up but the day is going to be a long one, especially if
like Det. Will Dormer (Al Pacino) you're conducting an
investigation in an American state during the months that the
sun does not set. The endless daylight of Alaskan towns make
the detective even more drowsy than he'd otherwise be and Mr.
Pacino spends of good deal of Christopher Nolan's movie just
dragging his tail around, eyes narrowing, just sufficiently aware
of his surroundings to be both the butt of jokes of other cops
and the guy that some of the local women learn to care for.
Hilary Seitz's script for this version based on the 1997
Norwegian film of the same name starring Stellan Skarsgard
and taking place in the Norwegian Arctic--is filmed by Wally
Pfister mostly within the lavish natural beauty of British
Columbia just forty miles from Vancouver. An opening scene
shot in Valdez, Alaska sets the tone for a film that moves at a
deliberate pace, as Mr. Nolan lets us in on the story's details bit
by bit, so slowly in fact that the audience cannot be blamed for
becoming impatient about the increasingly complex plot. For
example, we know straight away that Will Dormer is under
investigation by the police Internal Affairs department in his
home district in L.A. and that his partner, Detective Hap Eckhart
(Martin Donovan), may be about to spill the beans to turn on a
dime on the celebrated detective in return for leniency.
As Dormer and Eckhart, sent by the L.A.P.D. to an Alaskan
town to help the local cops investigate the murder of a 17-year-
old girl, spot the suspected killer in the midst of a dense fog,
Dormer shoots and kills his partner. Is it an accident or a
deliberately calculated plan to shut the man up? Since the
principal suspect in the murder case, novelist Walter Finch
(Robin Williams), has witnessed the shooting which Dormer
tries to cover up by switching the offending bullet and planting
the weapon on a high-school kid who is also suspected in the
murder of the girl Finch engages in an unusual type of
blackmail. Finch will agree not to report what he saw to the
local police and in return Dormer will avoid implicating Finch in
the murder of the young woman.
Though Robin Williams does not show up until half the movie
is past, the film springs to life with the cat-and-mouse game
initiated and enjoyed thoroughly by the writer. One suspects that
Finch is planning to write a detective story, this one with a
strong autobiographical overtone, about the game, particularly
since his victim, a police detective who is sleep-challenged and
guilt-ridden by both the Internal Affairs investigation being
conducted in L.A. and by his shooting of his partner, is such a
vital character.
The interplay between Robin Williams, who follows up his
serious role in "Death to Smoochy" with an even more sober
characterization here, is the heart of the film and while David
Mamet probably could have done better with the script than
Hillary Seitz bringing more wit, more bone-chilling
suspense the interplay is custom made for the style of director
Nolan, whose "Memento" last year dealt with an insomniac-like
short-term memory loss of Guy Pearce's character.
While Williams successfully plays against type as a wily but
serious murder suspect, Pacino for his part continues his
signature role as a brooding antihero while at the same time
substituting a meditative pose for his usual in-your-face
flamboyancy. Hilary Swank also turns in an interesting role as a
kind of rube cop, an admirer of the detective from the big city,
but one who turns out to be the most clever person of the lot.
Rated R. Running time: 118 minutes. (C) 2002 by
Harvey Karten, film_...@compuserve.com
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JoBlo
RATING: 8/10
http://www.joblo.com/insomnia.htm
For more reviews and movie wallpapers, visit http://www.joblo.com/
PLOT:
A veteran L.A. detective and his partner are called into a small Alaskan town to
investigate the murder of a teenage girl. Once there, the lead officer finds
himself caught up in his own personal issues, twice compounded by phone calls
from the chief suspect in the case, as well as his own battle with insomnia.
Detective stuff ensues.
CRITIQUE:
A small-town thriller which captured me whole with its picturesque settings, its
tremendous directing, its surprising, sturdy and effective story, but mostly,
its lead character, played with resonating aplomb, by the consistently
entertaining: Al Pacino. Mind you, it wasn't just his performance that grabbed
me by the nuts and asked me to cough this time around, it was his actual
character as well, his plight and ultimately, his deep-rooted moral impasse.
From the looks of this film's lousy ass "give-away" trailer, I was expecting
something along the lines of the lame MURDER BY NUMBERS, despite the
high-caliber pedigree attached. What I got instead was a play on the old murder
mystery, with much of the focus being turned towards the detective, instead of
the killer. I also appreciated how the story didn't make anything cut and dry.
No super good guys or insanely maniacal bad guys. There were a lot of things
said and decisions made which really could have gone either way, depending on
how you looked or felt about the situation. I'm obviously not going to give away
any details of the central dilemma here, but suffice it to say that the job of
any good detective, is never an easy one. Sometimes there are easier ways to do
things, which might not be altogether ethical, and then there are the "safer",
more professional ways of handling cases, which a lot of times don't get the job
done as effectively.
I also loved how the director played with the fact that this Alaskan town's sun
never set, in combination with the lead detective's own mind games and even more
so, with his inability to sleep. I actually liked Pacino's performance even more
for that very reason, because you really got a sense of the man losing himself
in the ongoing drowsiness of his day to day. The symbolism of the sleep
deprivation, the case in question and his mindset, all lend further weight to
the story. The directing was also extremely important to those scenes, and Nolan
smartly emphasized certain sounds, movements and hallucinations as the film (and
the detective's condition) moved forward. All of that combined made for an
engaging thriller, which despite not having the greatest mastermind "villain" in
the world, managed to weave one man's moral dilemma into a fascinating mystery
case, with a sound message and poignant ending. Hilary Swank is also to be noted
as the rookie detective who did a great job of acting "green" and looking damn
cute. I wouldn't suggest this film to anyone who is looking for thrills or
chills, since that's really not what it's about, but if you enjoy taut murder
mysteries with deep character predicaments and the catch-22 nature of any plot,
this film will likely appeal to your tastes. I also like it when I come out of a
theater and still wonder about the characters' real motivations and actions. It
leaves more room for your own interpretation and since not everything in life is
either black or white, it's nice to see a movie giving us that same option on
the screen. PS: Don't go in expecting MEMENTO!!!
Where's JoBlo coming from?
Changing Lanes (8/10) - Crimson Tide (9/10) - Death to Smoochy (7/10) - Hannibal
(7/10) - Heat (8/10) - Memento (10/10) - Murder by Numbers (5/10) - A Perfect
Murder (7/10) - The Pledge (6/10) - Under Suspicion (7/10)
Review Date: May 22, 2002
Director: Christopher Nolan
Writer: Hilary Seitz
Actors: Al Pacino as Will Dormer
Robin Williams as Walter Finch
Hilary Swank as Ellie Burr
Genre: Thriller
Year of Release: 2002
------------------------------------
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http://www.joblo.com/
------------------------------------
(c) 2002 Berge Garabedian
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Jon Popick
"We Put the SIN in Cinema"
© Copyright 2002 Planet Sick-Boy. All Rights Reserved.
Fresh off the Oscar-nominated success of Memento, one might think it odd
that director Christopher Nolan chose to remake a somewhat obscure Norwegian
thriller as his first big Hollywood film. Then again, some of the top
talent in the biz has taken that same route, whether in the form of crime
capers (Steven Soderbergh's Traffic and Ocean's Eleven - he
executive-produces here with George Clooney) or another equally unseen
European creepfest (Cameron Crowe's Vanilla Sky). Perhaps it's fear of
following a big hit with something personal that audiences and critics might
just not get. Perhaps not.
In Nolan's case, Insomnia might be his way of showing he can capably helm a
film without resorting to anything gimmicky (such as, say, manipulating time
in some daring way). Like Memento, it's a dark character study of
incredible intelligence, which is pretty rare for a mainstream film, let
alone one released between Mother's Day and the Fourth of July. Both films
feature tremendously performed leads who would do anything to achieve what
they believe to be the right thing, even though, in the back of their minds,
they realize they're no longer capable of telling right from wrong.
Al Pacino (Any Given Sunday) always looks like he's been up for a couple of
days, but he looks especially exhausted when his Will Dormer arrives in
Nightmute, Alaska. A detective in the LAPD's robbery-homicide division,
Dormer and partner Hap Eckhart (Martin Donovan, The Opposite of Sex) have
been sent to Nightmute both to help the local sheriff and ex-LAPD cop (Paul
Dooley) catch the killer of a 17-year-old girl, and to get away from an
Internal Affairs investigation that might potentially free several of the
duo's high-profile convictions because of allegedly improper police
practices. Eckhart wants to cut a deal to save his own ass, even though
doing so will most certainly sell out his well-known partner.
Save the IA probe, Insomnia's premise sounds a lot like Special Agent Dale
Cooper flying to Twin Peaks to hunt down Laura Palmer's killer, but things
take a fairly sharp turn when, while luring the suspect back to the scene of
the crime, Dormer accidentally shoots and kills his partner amidst a heavy
layer of thick Alaskan fog. Ordinarily, that would be traumatic enough, but
there are several circumstances that make the situation a whole lot worse
for Dormer.
For starters, he tampers with evidence to make it seem like Eckhart was
killed by the bad guy they were chasing (since it might look like Dormer did
it purposely to hamper the IA investigation). Worse yet, the killer (Robin
Williams, Death to Smoochy) witnessed the whole thing and blackmails Dormer
into pinning his murder on an innocent man. Oh, and there's the little
matter of Nightmute being located in the Land of the Midnight Sun, which
offers 24/7 daylight and robs Dormer of sleep during the week he spends
there (Dormer.Nightmute.get it?). Throw in a squeaky-clean eager-beaver
local cop (Hilary Swank, Boys Don't Cry), and he's got one major recipe for
disaster.
The cat-and-mouse game between Dormer and Williams's Walter Finch will make
the hair on your arms stand on end, in part due to our detailed knowledge of
the film's incredibly flawed protagonist. Like Leonard Shelby, we get
deep-down into Dormer's character (compare our knowledge of his background
with that of Sandra Bullock's character in Murder 8y Num8ers) and, thanks to
Wally Pfister's (Scotland, PA) camera work, we can practically feel the
lines on his forehead deepen along with the size of the bags under his eyes
(Pfister's photography, though much more shadowy than the bright original
version, also offers the best weather-worn small-town exteriors since The
Cider House Rules).
Pacino does his best work in years here, adeptly conveying Dormer's
exhaustion and confusion (Is the constant sunlight, a clever metaphor for
his blinding conscience, affecting his judgment? Could the sleep
deprivation be clouding his ability to distinguish reality from
hallucination?). His performance, and the success of the film as a whole,
is on par with that of Jack Nicholson in The Pledge. Williams severely
underplays his role, even more so than he tends to do in his dramatic work,
while Swank doesn't get too much to do other than gaze at Dormer with big
starstruck eyes.
Nolan's work is more than solid, infusing the story with quick Requiem For a
Dream-like bursts of flashback that initially seem mysterious but eventually
begin to make sense. His remake is much better than Crowe's Americanization
of Abre los Ojos, almost by virtue of not fiddling with the story too much
(the original was penned by Nikolai Frobenius and Erik Skjoldbjærg, and is
adapted here by first-timer Hillary Seitz). In addition to Pfister, Nolan
also brings back scoremeister David Julyan and Oscar-nominated editor Dody
Dorn, who both equal or surpass their previous efforts in Memento.
1:58 - R for language, some violence and brief nudity
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Laura Clifford
--------
When a local teenager is found brutally murdered with all traces of the killer
carefully removed, Nightmute, Alaska's Police Chief Nyback (Paul Dooley,
"Waiting for Guffman") requests the assistance of old friend, L.A. detective
Will Dormer (Al Pacino). Already troubled by his partner Hap's (Martin
Donovan, "Portrait of a Lady") plans to cooperate with internal affairs on
an investigation which may implicate him, Dormer loses more sleep in the
land of the midnight sun in director Christopher Nolan's ("Memento") remake
of the 1997 Norwegian film, "Insomnia."
Nolan proves he has the commercial goods directing three Oscar winning actors
with Hillary Seitz's Americanized adapted screenplay. This "Insomnia" is
bigger and glossier than the original, but the Norwegian version's grittier
edge gave more darkness to its sunshine-provoked protagonist.
Will impresses local junior cop Ellie Burr (Hilary Swank, "The Affair of the
Necklace"), who studied one of his cases for her thesis, with his ability
to sniff out motivation from the victim's surroundings. He quickly discounts
her boyfriend Randy (Jonathan Jackson, "Deep End of the Ocean") as a suspect,
and gets him to admit she was seeing an older man who could afford to buy
her expensive presents. When the young girl's purse is returned to the
murder site as bait, the murderer falls for the trap, but eludes his
pursuers in dense shoreline fog. He does, however, witness Dormer's
accidental
shooting of his partner, as well as Will's immediate reaction to pin the
killing on him.
After Will tampers with the evidence (which is just what he's under
investigation for back home), he soon sniffs out Walter Finch (Robin
Williams),
a local writer, as the killer. Finch, however, holds Dormer's career in
his hands and dances rings around the guilty cop while suggesting Dormer
assist him in framing Randy. They both, after all, never meant to kill.
"Insomnia's" marketing would have you believe that Dormer may have really
intended to shoot his partner and that Finch uses his murders for book ideas.
Neither is the case. While the original "Insomnia's" partner shooting
incident was more enveloped in fog, Dormer would be more correctly accused
of ineptitude than murder.
Pacino is much more convincing, if more theatrical, in displaying his
character's sleep deprivation than Stellan Skarsgard's take on the character,
but the Norwegian actor shows more depravity. The twinning of the hunter and
hunted, which made the original such a compelling character study, is
missing here. Where Skarsgard's character shoots a stray dog to produce
his evidence, Pacino merely finds an already dead one. When interrogating
the victim's best friend, who was cheating her friend's boyfriend, Skarsgard's
Engstrom makes a play for the young flesh while Pacino's Dormer merely
shows contempt.
This teeter to the good of the cop is tottered, however, by Robin Williams'
performance as Finch. Where the Norwegian killer was more brutish, Williams
makes him pathologically smooth, a man who speaks with warm empathy as
the ice that runs through his veins melts through his moist eyes. The
pairing of Williams' cool to Pacino's hot is beautifully shown off in a
scene in Nightmute's police office interrogation room, where Finch outplays
Dormer's every move causing the detective to explode in rage.
Hilary Swank is serviceable as the idealistic young cop who acts as the
moral compass in the film, but the underrated Maura Tierney ("Scotland, PA")
is better as the hotel clerk who becomes Dormer's confessor. Unfortunately,
a wild sex scene between cop and clerk in the 1997 film is only vaguely
alluded to here. Tierney deserved more screen time.
Director of Photography Wally Pfister ("Memento") makes the most of rugged
locations and delivers a clean and crisp look. His initial shot of a
small plane flying over jagged, vertical peaks is breathtaking. The pattern
is repeated when Will chases Finch over a river of swift-moving logs from
a mill and Pfister emphasizes the scene with a diagonally framed overhead
shot. This sequence is beautifully edited by "Memento" Oscar nominee
Dody Dorn, who pays homage to the climatic scene of "The Silence of the Lambs"
in her cutting choices with this film's ending.
Christopher Nolan's "Insomnia" may not keep you awake at night, but it's
a stylish police thriller with a combustible pairing in Pacino and Williams.
B
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Susan Granger
Director Christopher Nolan follows his acclaimed "Memento" with this
conventional remake of a 1997 Norwegian thriller about a hard-boiled policeman
trying to track down a killer. Will Dormer (Al Pacino) is an LAPD veteran who's
sent with his longtime partner Hap (Martin Donovan) to a small Alaskan town to
investigate the brutal murder of a 17 year-old girl. They're met by Ellie
(Hilary Swank), a wide-eyed local cop who's in awe of Will's legendary
expertise, and the stakes escalate when Hap is killed during a stakeout on a
fog-shrouded beach. Problem is: during the summer in Nightmute, the
halibut-fishing capital of the world, the sun never sets and the perpetual
daylight plays havoc with sleep. Soon Will's meticulous mind is clouded by
insomnia as he narrows down the suspect list to Walter Finch (Robin Williams), a
malevolent crime-fiction writer who cleverly manipulates Will's vulnerabilities
and ensnares him into a dangerously compromising game of cat-and-mouse. Will's
sleep-deprivation is the physical manifestation of his psychological struggle:
"A good cop can't sleep because a piece of the puzzle is missing. A bad cop
can't sleep because his conscience bothers him." Al Pacino captures the subtle
intensity of Will's moral dilemma which becomes more corrosive and complex with
a brewing Internal Affairs scandal back in L.A., while Hilary Swank is credible
with a rookie's dogged dedication to duty. After "Death to Smoochy," Robin
Williams convincingly tackles yet another menacing, despicable villain.
Christopher Nolan's collaboration with "Memento" cinematographer Wally Pfister
makes this noirish tale of a damaged detective compelling to watch despite its
slow pace. On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, "Insomnia" is an intense,
engrossing 8. It's an ironic, edgy eye-opener.
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Christopher Null
A film review by Christopher Null
Copyright 2002 filmcritic.com
Director Christopher Nolan, the auteur behind the masterful Memento, has made an
odd choice for a follow-up, choosing to remake the Norwegian film Insomnia,
which starred Stellan Skarsgård as a troubled cop investigating a murder north
of the Arctic Circle, where the sun never sets. Nolan has kept the story
intact, moving it 'round the Circle from Norway to Alaska, putting monster stars
Al Pacino and Robin Williams in the lead roles… and telling the whole story
backwards!
Okay, I'm joking about the backwards part, but to tell you the truth, this
retread could have used it. It certainly needs a lot more than Pacino's
overacting and Nolan's mood lighting to be watchable.
The story is capable, a curious twist on the standard cop-chases-killer mystery.
In Nightmute, Alaska (which is actually considerably south of the Arctic
Circle, but no matter), a girl has been brutally beaten to death. From Los
Angeles come two LAPD detectives, Dormer (Pacino) and Hap (Martin Donovan),
enlisted to help out the yokels. The investigation proceeds apace, and in a
stakeout Hap gets shot -- by his partner Dormer. Was it an accident? Or did it
have something to do with an internal affairs investigation going on back at
home. And what about the creepy guy (Williams) who probably killed the girl?
Why does he keep calling Dormer at his hotel, where he can't sleep because the
sun won't go down?
The answers are more or less forthcoming, but Nolan certainly takes his time in
getting to them. Far from the rollercoaster ride of Memento, Insomnia is far
sleepier than it aspires to be. If Dormer's having trouble sleeping, he really
ought to try watching his own movie.
But eventually, a story does come out, and it isn't really a whodunit, as the
guilty parties become evident midway through the film. The real question is
whether Dormer will get busted for shooting his pal, and whether he'll make a
deal with the killer (who witnessed the "accidental" slaying of Hap). We get
interesting moral complications without an obvious course of action -- though
the eager, goody-two-shoes local cop (Hilary Swank) certainly tries to force a
Hollywood ending out of it (thus botching the dénouement altogether).
But a clever morality fable alone doesn't make a two-hour movie worth sitting
through, and Insomnia's problems are legion. Pacino slips in and out of a
Southern accent so badly it seems like a joke he's pulling on us (or maybe on
young upstart Nolan). Swank's "Golly gee!" cop is perhaps the most
one-dimensional character ever put to film. And I don't know what Robin
Williams is trying to do career-wise with his new Tough Guy persona (seen here
and in Death to Smoochy), but I will say it ain't working. He comes off as
little more than a garden-variety freak: Think Mork on heroin.
Nolan capably sets the mood with dim-but-omnipresent lighting which fits well
with the story's challenging script, but his players simply run roughshod over
the material. Nolan is quite faithful to Erik Skjoldbjærg's original version,
but the Norse version moves much more quickly and lacks the hammy star power to
get in the way of the creepy script. Skarsgård's version of the cop is meaner
but has no ulterior motive for shooting his partner. The original killer is
more frightening, and the girl cop is more tolerable. The thrills are more
thrilling, the mystery is more mysterious, the ending is more satisfying; it's
just a better movie. Even if you haven't seen the original, consider Atom
Egoyan's The Sweet Hereafter, a strikingly similar film that features a
collection of impeccable performances which make Insomnia look like amateur
hour.
RATING: **1/2
[* = lowest rating / ***** = highest rating]
MPAA Rating: R
Director: Christopher Nolan
Producer: Paul Junger Witt, Edward L. McDonnell, Broderick Johnson, Andrew A.
Kosove
Writer: Hillary Seitz
Starring: Al Pacino, Martin Donovan, Robin Williams, Hilary Swank, Maura
Tierney
http://dontcloseyoureyes.warnerbros.com/
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filmcritic.com / http://filmcritic.com/
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X-Language: en
X-RT-ReviewID: 315249
X-RT-TitleID: 1114154
X-RT-SourceID: 178
X-RT-AuthorID: 1062
X-RT-RatingText: 2.5/5