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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.
That wasn't alaska! that was port alberni!!!
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.
Insomnia is actually a remake of the Norwegian movie with the same name. It's set in the northern part of Norway, where the sun always shines. It was a good movie then, and I really hope they managed to capture the same feel in this edition. The Norwegian homepage for Insomnia can be found here (I didn't find an English version).
DamnKatz said:
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.
It is incredibly clear and a very important part of the movie that Dormer DID shoot Hap. Any doubt as to whether Dormer shot Hap makes the second half of the film make no sense at all. This is NOT what gives the movie a taut, gripping edge. The fact that it IS clear and it is used against Dormer is what gives it a taut, gripping edge.
Does Katz see these movies and then do a write-up on the drive home so he doesn't take away from his pr0n time at his desk? Glaring mistake Jon...
It was a good movie tho... 3 out of 4
A local reviewer made the good point that its one of the view roles where Pacino could deliver an understated role as opposed to an intense, over the top role. In that respect, this kind of breaks that typecast.
"Old man yells at systemd"
This is a movie I want to see. Robin Williams is underrated as a serious actor. I, to this day, disagree with the casting of Hugh Jackman in X-Men. I think Williams would have made an amazing Wolverine. As long as he can pull off gruff, feral, and Canadian, that is. He is short, sturdy, and hella hairy. Perfert, IMO. I've been waiting for a flim that this that will put him in a serious dark role.
So, wanting to see this movie and hoping to have it contain a least a little suspense, I'm not actually going to read yet another artsiefartsie Katz review. I can get over Pacino playing the same character all the time because he is good at it. I can't wait to see how well Williams pulls off this role. I don't care if it is a remake, and if the original was better. Good stories deserve to be retold, its the core of the art of storytelling
perl -e 'print $i=pack(c5, (41*2), sqrt(7056), (unpack(c,H)-2), oct(115), 10)'
I thought it was excellent as well. And it really does show you that two hundred million dollars worth of CG isn't necessary to make a good movie. I highly recommend it.
A word of caution: If you go see this, it will make you want to go see Alaska because the place looks so beautiful =)
Far from home, subject to the endless sunlight of the Alaskan winter
I think its SUMMER when the globe tilts that way.
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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
I've actually seen this twice. Had to see it the other night because my father wanted to see it for his birthday and drove 150 miles to my house and I didn't want to tell him that I'd seen it already. Doh!
When I saw this at first, I was convinced that Williams wasn't going to be the one to play this role. As a friend says, he plays the idiot manchild all too well. I watch it the first time with the belief that he CAN'T play a serious role without screwing it up and kept waiting for him to go into some Aladin style adlib crap. It ruined it a little because I kept waiting for it and it never happened. It was only after the movie was over that I realized he did well in the role.
Seeing the film a second time, and I'm not sure why films like this hide the spoiler...its not like I've seen any film in the mainstream theatres that I didn't know what the outcome would be just from the previews alone. Noting that, seeing it a second time didn't ruin the supprise of the movie. It instead allowed me to focus on the acting, which as was said earlier IS the draw for this movie. Knowing Williams wasn't going to head into the Idiot Manchild routine, I saw it in another light. He really was a good actor.
Without giving away too much of the 'plot', Williams plays a man that commits cold blooded murder in the heat of 'passion'. He is an everyman, a sort of a slashdot geek that just snapped. Subsistute a loner book author for loner computer geek and ya get the idea'r. He is rebuffed and laughed at and snaps. By the time he recovers, its done and has to do something about it. His role wasn't to be a creepy guy...it was supposed to be a misunderstood loner that wanted to be loved by someone and accepted by the general populace and fails at all of this. Not creepy except because of circumstances. Creepy in the way that the guy that wears the trenchcoat in the computer lab in the middle of a dry summer in the same means a child would bring his favorite blanket with him everywhere.
If you look at it in that sense, Williams is still a manchild, not fully socially developed and reacting badly to situations that don't go the way he expected it to go. He is a little pathetic but also a semisympathetic character and he plays his role well.
clif marsiglio
sonikmatter
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.
I actually thought this was a nice touch. Ever since Silence of the Lambs, criminals seem to be completely over the top and without any sort of pity. Finch tries to get Dormer to believe his telling of the story, and that's impossible if we don't think he's human.
Towards the end of the movie (without giving too much away) Dormer might have to cooperate with Finch. The audience wouldn't stomach this if Robin Williams wasn't someone who seemed like a down-to-Earth guy who just got in a bad situation. I think the comparison with Dormer's situtation is the key here; Dormer is trying to convince himself that Finch isn't such a bad guy.
At the end of the film, however, Williams is pretty damn scary. He's mean, he's creepy, and he kicks some ass. I thought it was an excellent film, and dare I say, better than the original.
But then again, I was forced to see the original in film class next to two stupid people making out and in front of a big snoring football jock.
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I am an expert in electricity. My father held the chair of applied electricity at the state prision.
> He's just too much a nice, wacky guy to come across as a killer I guess.
Only if you've never watched his vast body of work in "serious: films which typically have a smaller audience than the mainstream releases, with a few exceptions.
Frankly, I think Robin Williams is one of the best actors out there, with one of the widest ranges, and definitely with a gift for ad-lib. This is supported by a look at his IMDB entry: http://us.imdb.com/Name?Williams,+Robin reveals a career topheavy with comedy, but containing some great dramatic roles as well.
One of my favorite films ever (despite its mediocre reviews thanks to its slow pace and serious subject-matter) is *Being Human*, which stars Williams as several different characters across several different time periods, from prehistory to the present. Each one is an Everyman who faces a dramatic challenge, often as a sad and sympathetic character. His performance is dead-on in all those roles, a feat few actors could manage. It's one of those films that "average" people think is boring and hate, which is why it's off most people's radar--too philosophical for the masses since it's about "ordinary lives."
In *Awakenings* he injected a lot of life with his deliberate expressions and mannerisms into an otherwise fairly dull fact-based character. *Good Will Hunting*, *Jakob the Liar*, and a few others also get the benefit of Williams' talent as a non-comedic actor.
Let's not forget his "mixed" roles either, where he manages to blend comedy and seriousness, even pathos, successfully like few actors could--*Dead Poets' Society*, for example, and *Patch Adams*.
His filmography is of course topheavy, because he's a naturally hilarious guy and that's what got him started in show business. But he's proven himself as a great dramatic actor as well, in few roles which nonetheless had impact.
Chasing Amy
(We all chase Amy...)
"The more corrupt the state, the more numerous the laws"-Tacitus
Only thing that really bothered me about Insomina was Al Pacino's fingernails... GAH! They have medications for that now, man, might want to check into it. I'm sure you can afford whatever they charge, just get something done before those nails completely pop off and you have to pay a guy to pick up paper for you.
== Paul Rickard, Editor of The Microsoft Boycott Campaign ====
I wonder if the Norweigan original does a similiar wordplay on the cop investigator's name.
- Sam
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