Insomnia
Starring Al Pacino, Robin Williams, Hilary Swank
Written by Nikolaj Frobenius, Erik Skjoldbjaerg, and Hilary Seitz
Directed by Christopher Nolan


It is always fun to watch a late, late-night movie when you can’t sleep. What is even more fun is watching one like Insomnia. Top notch acting, a great story, fascinating characters -- what more can one man who can’t sleep ask for.

Set in a small town in Alaska, where in the summer it never gets dark and you can’t tell day from night, Insomnia is a crime thriller in the truest sense. Al Pacino is on fire as usual as veteran Los Angeles homicide detective, Will Dormer, who is dispatched to Alaska to assist on the murder case of a local teen. On arrival he meets local detective, Ellie Burr, played by Hilary Swank, in another great role, who sees Dormer as a kind of mentor and legend. Everything seems routine at first for Dormer, but then the constant sunlight starts to get to him, causing him to lose sleep and shoot and kill his partner by accident while pursuing a suspect. Trying to catch the murder suspect, an internal affairs investigation involving him back home, and lying about shooting his partner all begin to add to Dormer’s insomnia and slowly eat away at his mind. Then Dormer is contacted by the murderer, Walter Finch (Robin Williams), a local detective novel writer who is as annoying as he is creepy, who starts a cat-and-mouse game with Dormer, driving him practically insane. From there Insomnia beings spinning a web of intense thrills.

The scenes where Robin Williams and Al Pacino square off against each other are classic. Both actors bring years of experience and wisdom to their roles and fire of dialogue at each other as if their mouths were semi-automatics. An early scene where Dormer pursues Finch through a landscape of fog and a later scene where he pursues him again through the town and through a log-filled dock are some of the most thrilling chase scenes you will ever experience. Considering this is only the second “big” film by director Christopher Nolan (his first was Memento), Insomnia is quite amazing. The characters are developed nicely and the pacing displays the marks of a veteran filmmaker, not a new one. If you’re trying to fall asleep, don’t watch Insomnia because it will keep you up all night with all it’s thrills and intense drama.


THE RUNDOWN:

The Good: A perfectly executed crime-thriller.

The Bad: May keep you awake thinking about how good it was.

The Law: Keep your eyes wide open when watching Insomnia, you don’t want to miss anything.