Slashdot Mirror
Review: Insomnia
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.
Maybe first?
I didn't even bother to read this. I'm just so horrendously bored I clicked on the link.
I claim your un-claimed FP for all AC Trolls!
First Post!
A movie Katz actually liked? That's unpossible!
My name is Brock Secord I am 20 years old, I have a son and a wife to be. In the begining I have always had many experene since I was a baby. From full body entities visiting in the middle of the night to having pennies thrown at me. When my feonce and I first got together 2.5 years ago I told her all the things that I had seen and been through. She understood yet said nothing. I still think that at the begining of the relationship she was a sceptic. I even warned her in a sence about the fact that for years they followed me in a way. That sceptisisim all left after one experence. I was living at my uncles house and I was cleaning the living room. My feonce was doing the dishes. I had just finished vacuming when I heard Mara scream. I ran into the kitchen and she was holding her hand. I asked her what the problem was, she said that she burned herself quite badly. She said that she had watched the handle on the foset turn to the left (hot) by itself.. The site shocked her so much that she was not paying attention to the hot water. Later on that night I sent her up to bed just before me. I went up 5 min after her. I went into the room to find her curled up in a ball on the bed with no covers, not to be too detailed but she was also nude (as normal) but it was vary vary cold in my room. The fact that she had no covers on and was not moving struck me as vary odd. I paid no attention and climbed in beside her and pulled up the covers she did not snuggle into me like she did every time I had to pull her into me for her to move. I asked her what the problem was, she did not respond it started to worry me I thought that I may have done somthing to upset her. I laid back and then I saw it..... On the ceiling was a dark figure of some being staring straight back at us. All most sneering at us. I asked her if she had seen it aswell. She said thats why she was not moving......She was scared stiff....... I proceeded to talk to this shadow like being telling it that it was all ok and that it should leave, everything will be all right. After trying to resone with this thing for about 30 min it finally driffted off and disapird into the wall . The next day I asked my uncle about the history of the house. The old mans wife died in that house and the room that I had was the babys room. Before the women pasted away she was always in the babys room. But then she pasted away and the man had to move away.After that she never douted anything I ever said again
Linus Torvalds is a canadian! bling bling!
-- OMFG = Oh My Floatse Goatse
I haven't seen a report for ages.
They really should replace Katz with him or with the BankOfAmerica_ATM. Both of them are much more entertaining.
i want to fuck the tight butt of johnkatz together with the butt of anal cocks, richard m. failman, linux trollwars, miguel de i-fag-za and all you people out there. lets make some nice bukkake penis action...
Hey, did they fix the moderation so you can't moderate posts that are posted from the same ip address that you are moderating from? biznatch... how am i going to reach the karma cap now! bling bling!
-- OMFG = Oh My Floatse Goatse
Wonderful. The first thing I do after waking up is read slashdot. Whats the first thing I find? An article by Mr. Verbal Dysentry (spewing his guts about a movie about "not sleeping" at that). Can somebody else let me know if it's worth reading, perhaps leave an executive summary? I'm going back to bed.
Does having an unlimited pool of moderation points give you a hard-on?
Does moderating down entire threads of discussion you don't agree with make you feel like a REAL MAN?
Gotta keep those subversives down, eh?
It is the Lord's day afterall...
I'm not bitching or anything but wow.
...why am I reading about a non-tech, non-nerd film on /. ? Maybe it's time for me to write that review on "Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron" after all.
/.
Folks, please let's keep this forum at least a little tech related. There are loads of sites where we can discuss films and stuff that would normally be rated as off-topic on
I feel so sig.