Cheap Insomnia (Widescreen Edition) (DVD) (Al Pacino, Robin Williams, Hilary Swank) (Christopher Nolan) Price

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Customer Reviews of Insomnia (Widescreen Edition)

The pleasure of Insomnia is to be found in its rich cinematography, beautiful landscapes, and excellent performances. The movie is one of the most visually compelling pieces of filmmaking I have seen in years, creating surreal juxtapositions with the vast, harsh Alaskan landscape and with close-up shots of crime scene evidence. The amazing visual landscapes (both large and small) are used effectively by director Nolan to emphasize the films themes of isolation and overpowerment, of losing oneself within ones environment and in ones choices.

Insomnia's plot will disappoint those looking for a new Memento, in that it does not have the sort of turns of action and motivation that Memento does. Insomnia works well without elaborate plot twists, however, it's mood benefits from a certain lack of ambiguity of action, although the ending is perhaps a little to predictable and cliched. Insomnia would have benefited, however, from more ambiguity of motivation - while the acting is top notch, especially on the part of Robin Williams, the connections between the characters actions and their motivations and decisions is too closely drawn by the script.

Overall Insomnia is an excellent movie, and a good entry into the detective/suspense movie cannon. It suffers slightly from a couple of bad edits (in a movie filled with amazing editing and shooting) and from its desire to clearly spell out the principle characters motivations, but these minor flaws are more than redeemed by the director's excellent camerawork and sense of pacing, a strong script, and very solid acting performances. Insomnia is a must see movie, and a welcome change from the "blockbuster" summer movie scene of 2002.

It is always the darkest in the light
Ok, that might sound like a cliche line for Insomnia, a remake here of the 1997 foreign version with Stellan Skarsgard, but why not once in a blue moon. Anyway, this is indeed a topper for Christopher Nolan, over his 2001 independent backwards episode Memento, and brings his storytelling skills to a thriller set in Alaska. Thus, Al Pacino plays the cop, a usual part to be sure, yet here brings an excellent feeling of desperation to try and find a way out of the muck of lies and torment that are in his life. And for once, Alaska is shown as it truly is, either all night or all day (there are so many movies that get this wrong it's too lengthy to explain here) and how either one can drive the particular person crazed. Here it is the constant shining of a itty bit of sunlight into his room at 3:30 AM.

Pacino is on the case of a killer (Robin Williams) who's victim is a teenage girl. This is handled in a good way, by turning it into not a cops and and bad guys movie, but more of a moral movie, one about getting caught in the most stressful of situations in dealing with control over life and the responsibility it follows. It is not just the acting, which is above par, but also just the downright craft that drags you into the predominately first person dilemma (although Williams brings up some interesting points among his blackmail).

One more note: Williams has done something this year to me I'm not sure he's ever done- he has two movies from this year that are both grand dramatic, crazed performances and among his flops and utter misdemeanors (including another one he did this year, Death to Smoochy) there is a bit of praise for the guy. As for the thriller here, one of the years best in conclusion.

Good Cop/ Bad Cop
What makes "Insomnia" such a compelling film is its painting of the Al Pacino character, a Los Angeles detective, in various shades of gray. Pacino is assisting the police in an Alaska town solve the murder of a young high school woman. His character is complex. There is no doubt that he has been a thoroughly professional, hard working and determined man throughout his career. However, he is also a haunted man. Pacino's character, Detective Dormer, is under investigation concerning some allegedly unprofessional conduct concerning evidence in an earlier murder case. To add to his woes, during his work on the current case he does something horrendous, perhaps accidentally, while he and his partner are chasing the possible culprit.

Al Pacino gives a wonderful and sympathetic performance as the weary and very troubled detective. Interestingly, his character's name, Dormer, means "to sleep" in French. Robin Williams gives a realistically creepy performance as the mystery writer with whom the dead woman had gotten perhaps too involved. Williams, who is often over-the-top in his other movie roles, here underplays his part, which helps to give his character the right sense of eerieness. Hilary Swank plays a young rookie detective assisting in the investigation with all the Nancy Drew enthusiasm that the part requires.

During the film, Pacino's Detective Dormer tells the Swank character, perhaps mirroring his own situation, what distinguishes a good cop from a bad cop. When a good cop can't sleep it is probably because a piece of the murder puzzle is still missing; when a bad cop can't sleep, he is probably feeling guilty about something. It is this complexity that makes this such a must see film.