Rent Insomnia (2002)

Norway 0 points - Insomnia review by JD

I am not a Hollywood fan and watch more sub-titled film than English, but Al Pacinos acting of a tired and stressed detective was superlative. I had seen the Norwegian original (produced 1997) without knowing there had been a remake and found it to be a good plot but rather under-acted. It felt like a fairly average TV detective series. This remake is proper cinema. This is no TV dinner fodder. If you don't feel sick with a feeling of sleep-deprivation by the end, you have no soul.

Really good, claustrophobic drama - both Al Pacino and Robin Williams are excellent - Insomnia review by RP

I was looking for films directed by Christopher Nolan ('Memento', 'The Prestige', 'Inception', the 'Dark Knight' Batman trilogy, 'Man of Steel' etc) when I found this excellent 2002 film. It's a remake of a 1997 Norwegian film of the same name and transplants the action to summertime Alaska, where it's daylight for 24 hours and the lead character gets no sleep for several days - hence the title.

Al Pacino and Robin Williams usually play loud, fast talking characters - but here they are much more restrained, and all the better for it. Hilary Swank has a role as a keen rookie cop (but is somewhat weak) and there's also a small part for Katherine Isabelle (she of 'Ginger Snaps' and the more recent 'American Mary' fame).

The story goes something like this: LA detective (Pacino) + partner arrive in small Alaskan town to investigate the killing of a teenage girl, while back in LA he's being investigated by Internal Affairs. In the fog and suffering from sleep deprivation he accidentally shoots his partner - but then makes the serious mistake of trying to cover it up. His lies catch up with him as it turns out the baddy (Williams, cast against type) has seen the shooting, blackmails him, and frames the boyfriend of the dead girl. However, rookie cop (Swank) figures things out and confronts baddy, leading to a final slightly disappointing Hollywood style shoot-out.

The acting is uniformly excellent, the script is good, the locations (I think it was filmed in Canada) and the photography are great, and Pacino is well cast as his craggy face and baggy eyes (sorry Al!) do indeed give the impression of severe loss of sleep. And Christopher Nolan directs with the skill we have come to expect.

I thoroughly enjoyed this claustrophobic drama - 4/5 stars. Now to watch the original Norwegian version...

Nolan's masterpiece. A stunning, perfectly acted & flawlessly made incredible achievement - Insomnia review by TB

This film is incredible. It shows 3 of our greatest actors, giving some of the most moving & emotional performances I've ever seen. I still say that to this day, it is Nolan's best film, head & shoulders above The Dark Knight. It is a journey into the complete destruction of a cop & his desperate battle for redemption, whilst his world & sanity collapse around him.

Will Dormer is a celebrated & revered LA detective, who has been sent to the isolated & sleepy Alaskan town of Nightmute. Whilst the pretense of this is to assist the local police in helping to solve the brutal murder of a young woman, the real reason is due to an incendiary Internal Affairs investigation against Dormer & his colleagues which is threatening to overturn his entire career/convictions; his partner also informs him that he going to cut a deal to testify against him. Whilst pursuing a suspect in the fog, Dormer's partner is killed & the suspect in the young girl's murder begins to relentlessly psychologically manipulate the mentally shattered detective. Added into this, the insomnia due to the 24 hour sunshine starts to destroy the remaining sanity he had.

Pacino has made a career out of playing cops, with mainly incredible success, such as Vincent Hanna in Heat. However, what Dormer has which for me is much more profoundly moving is that whilst both characters have a very strong moral core, Dormer's is literally destroying him. The trauma of what he has seen & experienced has turned him into a hollow shell. Also, crucially Dormer doesn't have any type of marriage or support that is referenced, irrelevant of whether that relationship is falling apart (like in Heat.)

I also loved the fact that as much as Ellie was the excitable young cop keen to work with her hero (much like the actress in real life,) I also could see her turning into a Dormer herself, as the brutality of the work started to destroy her. The final act of care that is given to her by Dormer is made all the more profound to me because of this.

And completing this triumvirate is Robin Williams as Walter Finch, who for me was the best of all of them. I simply could not take my eyes off him, plus the formation of & acting of his character was perfection. Rather than a stereotypical bad guy, he is instead the complete reality of what in 99% of cases you would find someone who has committed that crime would be: a totally calm & in control person, but alongside that a deeply sad & lonely loser. His manipulation of Dormer is a masterclass of confession, twisting of reality & control.

The final thing I want to say, which almost never gets recognised enough, is the incredible soundtrack. David Julyan has crafted one of the most creepy, wonderful & brilliantly morose pieces of work, which if the film didn't have, would have significantly less impact than it did. It is still a soundtrack I listen to regularly, with it's masterpiece being "Let Me Sleep."

Everything in this movie is perfect, wonderful, flawless brilliance. It still stands to this day as the absolute pinnacle of Nolan's ability to craft incredible & gut-wrenchingly devastating emotional work.

An out-and-out masterpiece