Review: Insomnia

It may not be the summer's happiest movie, but it might be the best (and there isn't a single marching digital Army, special effect, or marketing tie-in involved!). Hilary Swank and Robin Williams co-star in this dark tale of murder and redemption, but it's really Al Pacino's movie from beginning to end. And he was born to play the role of the exhausted, tough, morally confused LA homicide cop pursued by the do-gooders from Internal Affairs (IA), sent off to Alaska to help an old pal solve a vicious killing. The plot is a touch cheesy at moments, but the film is wonderfully acted, and beautifully shot. It's also dark, a great and timely movie. This isn't a take-your-mind-off-your-troubles summer flick. Neither is it a mega-epic. SPOILAGE WARNING: Plot discussed, not ending.

Far from home, subject to the endless sunlight of the Alaskan winter, Pacino (Detective Will Dormer) is drawn into a bleak, clever moral thriller. You have to pay careful attention to this movie, and even if you do, you'll end up doubting yourself, much as Pacino does. Against the backdrop of Spider-man and Clones and all the attendant hype, this is an almost refreshingly simple movie. It's all about acting and plot.

Pacino is up there because an old pal is running a tiny Alaskan police department, in over its collective head after a young girl is brutally and sadistically murdered. Pacino swaggers in, spotting all of the things the locals have missed, and is stunned and enraged to learn from his partner Martin Donovan (who plays LA Det. Hap Eckhart) that Hap is about to fess up to IA about various past wrongdoing, including Dormer's having planted fake evidence to catch a child-killer. This testimony will result in any number of killers going free, including the child-killer. It will also end Dormer's career.

Soon after, Hap is shot while the two are setting a trap for the local killer. This is really the heart of the movie -- a searing, twisting and turning moral agony for Dormer who, driven nearly mad by the insomnia he experiences in the long Alaskan day, tries, along with local police novice Ellie Burr (Hilary Swank) to understand what has happened, and what ought to be done about it. The fact that it isn't clear -- to him or to us -- what happened to Hap -- gives the movie a taut, gripping edge. Pacino has a tendency to overplay roles sometimes -- as in Heat -- but here, he is at perfect pitch. It's a knockout performance.

Christopher Nolan also does an amazing job of using Alaska as a backdrop from the opening scene, almost as a character. There is one stunning shot after another, putting the story into a particular context. Taking an embittered, wise-ass LA cop and putting him in this misty, eerie setting is a masterstroke, and Nolan makes the most of it. Day by day, Pacino becomes more disoriented fatigued and confused. He also is taunted by Walter Finch, the chief suspect in the local killing, and a creepy psycho who tries to blackmail Dormer into dropping the investigation, or steering it in another direction. Finch claims to have evidence against Dormer regarding Hap's shooting, and the two of them begin a cat-and-mouse game you know can't have a happy outcome.

Williams's doesn't seem to quite pull this off. He isn't creepy enough here -- think John Malkovich or Jeremy Irons. He doesn't get under your skin quite the way he ought to. But that's the only significant flaw in the summer's best thriller by far -- also a refreshing change of pace from the mega-movies and their marketing tie-ins. This is a psychological drama, a portrait beautifully rendered by a master actor. There isn't an explosion, thundering army, or special affect in it. Just a dark, powerful story about life, reality and hard choices, along with some amazing acting, and some of the best cinematography you'll see in a while.

Comments

Not all THAT good

[Anonymous Coward]

I saw this last night (and snuck into Unfaithful -- uh, wretched) and didn't think as highly. Loved love loved Memento.

Pacino has done much better work lately, particularly in The Insider.

The plot and twists are too formulaic -- it ends with the standard shoot-out at the end (come on, I'm not giving away anything). The big confrontation scenes are well written in a short-story kind of way, but don't carry the kind of gravitas they should.

Anything that wastes the talents of Hillary Swank is a problem -- why hire her for such a nominal role?

The scenery was absolutely gorgeous.

A GREAT movie, no "bad guy overkill"

[grokmiskatonic]

I really liked it. I can see why a lot of people wouldn't though. For some reason with me, it really hit the same type of chord as Silence of the Lambs, even though it's a really different movie. I though the acting was great, and Robin Williams is very good as a bad guy, in an underplayed sort of way.

It seems like most movies of this type sort of try to one up previous movies by having a creepier villian. It's sort of a bad guy escalation. This movie is excellent because it gives us a very believable killer. He's not a total psycho, he's not a devil worshiper, etc.

I watch a lot of movies, and I'm a fan of this genre. It's gets old seeing seeing some super freak killer. In movies, anyways, it's lost it's shock value for me. It's much more interesting seeing a killer try to justify what he did, and convince the cop chasing him that they are really very similar. I saw the previews for this, and I was expecting something very hokey from these scenes between the cop and the killer. They were anything but, and made the movie much more interesting.

Anyways, just my opinion,

Dave

Re:See the original film.

[joeykiller]

If you like this film, please go see the original film which this is based on. http://us.imdb.com/Title?0119375 [Imdb]. A much better film.

[This may seem to be flamebait, but isn't meant to be:]

My guess is that the above poster hasn't even seen the Christopher Nolan version, but is Norwegian and tries his best to promote a norwegian movie.

There's nothing wrong in promoting norwegian movies, of course, but I just don't think this writer has enough data to make comparions - mostly because the american version isn't beging showed in Norwegian cinemas yet.

Insomnia was great

[SilentJames]

Interesting sybolism---Dormer, sounds like , DORMIR. which in spanish means TO SLEEP. interesting

I like the name they gave Dormer

[Kiwi]

I like the name they gave Dormer; dormir means "To sleep" in Spanish (and probably other romance languages). Rather appropriate since one significant plot point was the Dormer could not sleep.

I wonder if the Norweigan original does a similiar wordplay on the cop investigator's name.

- Sam