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Insomnia (2002)

Filed under: — suzero on June 9th, 2003 12:06:27 am

insomnia1.jpgAnother well-made and exciting thriller from Christopher Nolan after his impressive Hollywood debut Memento. Pacino plays a detective (again) and Robin Williams plays the bad guy (for a change). Robin seems to be taking a liking to playing baddies nowadays (see also One Hour Photo).

Set in beautiful (rainy) Alaska, this film tells of an LA cop, Will Dormer (Pacino) and his partner, Hap, who have been sent to the small town of Nightmute to solve the brutal murder of a young girl. Pacino starts off in his ‘usual’ laid-back, slightly-cocky-but-you-know-he’s-right self, finding clues others would have missed and impressing Nightmute officer, Hilary Swank who is somewhat of a fan of his.

insomnia2.jpgThings start to go awry pretty soon though when we discover that Internal Affairs is after Pacino back in LA, his partner gets shot and he can’t sleep. His insomnia is partly due to the 24-hour daylight in Alaska during the summer, but also because something’s on his mind. Swank quotes him as once having said: “A good cop can’t sleep ‘cos of the missing piece of the puzzle. A bad cop can’t sleep ‘cos of his conscience”. That more or less covers it.

insomnia 3.jpgYou can really feel Pacino’s exhaustion throughout the film. Nolan used editing and sound very effectively for this, culminating in slurred speech and hallucinations. Williams is fine as a murderer, but it is still hard for me to disassociate him with Mrs. Doubtfire which makes an interesting mix. Perhaps there’s a market for “Mrs. Doubtfire’s Chainsaw Massacre Movie”? Hilary Swank was OK… I still think she was best in Boy’s Don’t Cry and can’t get used to her in feminine attire. (I tend to easily typecast actors it seems – sorry ;-) ). Added bonus is Maura Tierney (Abby from ER) as the hotel receptionist. She is cute as always.

I do not suffer from insomnia and am actually very tired now and shall go to sleep, so please excuse this rather simple review.

****/5

author picture suzero (90 posts)
Suzanna Noort - TV/video director/editor and multimedia something. Amsterdam, Netherlands

4 Comments

  • I loved this movie. Had a little trouble with Williams as a bad-guy, but loved Pacino and the whole 24 hour daylight thing that made this movie stand out from other detective stories. Great stuff…

    Comment by weefselkweekje — Mon June 9, 2003 @ 22:12
  • I think I like it as well… This movie seems to play tricks on me! In the theatre I feel asleep and a recent attempt to watch it on DVD resulted in a viewing with warbled DVD chapters… It does add to the experience I can tell ya :)

    Comment by punkmachine — Wed June 11, 2003 @ 11:22
  • Haha yeah, Punkmachine, I remember you snoring next to me. Really added to the soundtrack :)

    Comment by weefselkweekje — Thu June 12, 2003 @ 19:21
  • I haven’t seen it yet, but I’m curious. Did Nolan did his freaky complex flashback cut-up thing in this film again. Because it seems, this film is a bit more conventional on that level. At least not as extreme as Memento.

    By the way. Nolan’s pre-Memento period includes some nice stuff. Like ‘Following’, IMO better than Memento.

    Comment by reisneus — Fri June 20, 2003 @ 21:53

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