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"Insomnia"
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| Rude awakening! Al Pacino gets a wake-up call from Robin Williams in "Insomnia" |
The thought of updating a critically acclaimed foreign film with 3 Oscar-winning actors might sound like enough to keep an ordinary filmmaker up at night, but then again, Christopher Nolan is no ordinary filmmaker. After breaking through with last year's masterfully innovative indie hit "Memento," Nolan proves that he's the real deal with his first "big" budget Hollywood movie "Insomnia." Not only is the film an incredibly riveting, intensely paced, and well-acted game of cat-and-mouse, but the psychological thriller continually ups the ante to the point where you start to wonder who's the cat and who's the mouse.
LAPD detectives Will Dormer (Al Pacino) and his partner (Martin Donovan) are sent to a remote Alaskan town to investigate the murder of a 17-year-old girl. The never-ending daylight of the region throws off Dormer's body clock, and during the foggy pursuit of the victim's primary suspect--a reclusive writer named Walter Finch (Robin Williams)--he accidentally kills his own partner. Finch witnesses the shooting and effectively turns the tables on Dormer, who becomes even more delirious from lack of sleep, guilt over the accident, and paranoia over an internal affairs investigation back in LA. Dormer learns the hard way that you can run, but you cannot hide, and his sanity continues to slip away to the point where he'll do anything to get some sleep...even if it kills him.
Nolan sets the isolated mood of the film almost immediately with an incredible opening sequence that recalls Jack Nicholson's trip up the mountain to the Overlook Hotel in the beginning of "The Shining." As Dormer and his partner travel to the distant Northern Alaskan town, they fly over jagged glaciers that give the icy landscape an other-worldly feel. By the time they reach their destination, it's clear that they are not in Los Angeles anymore, and the land of the midnight sun might as well be another planet to them.
Where the gimmick of telling the story in reverse was one of the major selling points of "Memento," Nolan relies on good old fashioned filmmaking and character development to keep moviegoers on the edge of their seat during "Insomnia." It's virtually the same movie as the 1997 Norwegian film of the same name, but Nolan and screenwriter Hillary Seitz make the new version their own by raising the stakes and adding even more depth, suspense, and drama. Just when the film feels like it's starting to drag, Dormer unwittingly digs himself into a deeper hole, pushing the film even further into head-slapping unpredictability.
The dream cast is headed by Al Pacino, who has played a cop so many times over the years, it's hard to keep track (although 1973's "Serpico" and 1995's "Heat" are notable standouts). His performance here as a haggard, weathered police detective buckling under the pressure of extreme guilt is one of his finest and most restrained in years, and his descent into exhausted delirium is almost too infectious to bear. He also manages to keep his character entirely sympathetic, despite the fact that he has just killed his partner and is conspiring with his prime suspect to keep it under wraps.
Temporarily turning his back on comedic roles, Robin Williams continues his path down the dark side with an effective supporting turn as the introverted killer. He's smart, he's sly, and he's disturbingly calm, but he's also just endearing enough to be the type of bad guy you don't quite want to hate. Hilary Swank is also in top form as the conflicted eager-beaver who initially dotes on Pacino, only to reluctantly suspect that her hero may have done a bad, bad thing.
If "Insomnia" proves anything, it's that Christopher Nolan is just as good at telling stories moving forward as he is at telling them in reverse. It also proves that it's never too late to redeem your soul, even if saving someone else's soul is the only way to do it. Actually, that's just one of the many deep, haunting messages that'll keep you up at night and make you think into the wee hours of the morning.
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© Scott Mantz - Scott's Movie Reviews
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