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FILM DETAILS

Certificate 15

Cast Al Pacino Robin Williams Hilary Swank Martin Donovan Maura Tierney.

Directors Christopher Nolan.

Screenwriters Hillary Seitz.

Running Time 118 minutes

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Insomnia
Memento's director excels again with this psychological cop thriller starring Al Pacino and Robin Williams.

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Plot
Veteran LAPD detective Will Dormer (Pacino) and his partner Hap Eckhart (Donovan) travel to a remote town in Alaska to help the local cops investigate the murder of a teenage girl. But when a fog-bound bust goes fatally wrong, Dormer's guilt, coupled with the region's perpetual sunlight, gives him sleepless nights.

Review
How do you follow a one-of-a-kind cult classic like Memento? In Christopher Nolan's case, you move onwards and upwards.

On the surface, Insomnia looks like a standard Hollywood cop thriller - an American remake of a European original with A-list stars and a bigger budget. But, in Nolan's hands, it becomes a psychologically dense, inverted film noir (a film blanc, perhaps) that keeps the audience enthralled to the last.

Like Memento, Insomnia is all the more effective for streaming its plot through the unreliable mind of its main character. As Pacino's face visibly sags through lack of sleep, Will Dormer's ability to carry out his job objectively becomes less and less likely. This isn't a whodunnit - the killer is revealed early on. And unlike Murder By Numbers, for example, it's not simply a case of watching the cop get the bad guy.

Because Dormer compromises himself by covering up a fatal error, his relationship with the killer and his gung-ho attitude to the Internal Affairs investigation hanging over his head become questionable. 'That's my job - I assign guilt,' he says bullishly at one point. This end-justifies-the-means mentality threatens to cloud not only his judgement, but also our trust in him as the film's hero.

Just like the cracks of sunlight breaking through the blinds in Dormer's hotel room, the flaws in his personality steadily creep out from beneath the surface. And so while we're enjoying the cop movie thrills on a basic level, Nolan, Pacino and scriptwriter Hillary Seitz offer us something much meatier in terms of an anti-hero character study.

That's not to say that Insomnia can't be enjoyed as a cracking story cranked up by a couple of tense scenes. Williams is cleverly used as Dormer's nemesis, a crime novelist who believes he can control the murder investigation as if it were one of his fictions. Their relationship hangs on a delicate balance, depending on which one has more incriminating evidence on the other. It's not quite a Lecter-Starling match, but it's head and shoulders above what we're normally offered in a crime thriller.

The film opens with the two city cops flying over a topographical wasteland, before landing in a town untainted by street smarts and internal politics. Before it ends, Dormer's years of experience will be held under a harsh light and an Alaskan sun that refuses to set. Nolan, however, has nothing to fear from wider exposure. He has stepped up onto a bigger stage, where audiences are less forgiving than in the independent arena. But Insomnia is one of the best American films of the year, and a rare Hollywood movie that does justice to an excellent European original.

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Your Reviews

Average user rating for Insomnia

It is still an early Nolan film but Insomnia manages to use a great psycological formula that is still a great gem to enjoy today. ... More

Posted by samzucca at 16:49, 15 April 2013 | Report This Post

Al Pacino is amazing - just like the whole movie!! ... More

Posted by FanaticalAboutFilm at 10:34, 13 May 2010 | Report This Post

A superb and underrated movie that may be one of Christopher Nolan's least good, but on that scale, the best of his work just blows you away. ... More

Posted by cunnaw at 13:47, 30 April 2009 | Report This Post

A simple thriller with a great premise that escapes its meandering focus through fantastic performances, Williams a revelation here and Pacino on Oscar-form. The suspense is well ordained (as is the depiction of the title ailment), but it starts to unravel as it reaches its slightly disappointing climax. Still, this is the kind of stuff Pacino should be doing. ... More

Posted by Romarth at 12:52, 29 March 2009 | Report This Post

RE: RE:

its superior to the original with some top notch peformances especially from pacino and williams. but its nolan who deserves the credit for the movie, with his excellent use of light, sound and colour really makes this an excellent modern film. ... More

Posted by doncopey1 at 21:10, 20 January 2006 | Report This Post

RE:

Brilliant performances by Pacino and Williams. Not quite as original as i would have liked, but a good solid thriller all the same! ... More

Posted by BobaJango at 17:50, 20 January 2006 | Report This Post

this is a brilliant movie from batman begins director Christopher Nolan, people that love thrillers, PLEASE CHECK THIS MOVIE OUT!!! E-Mail me on what you think ... More

Posted by umer_ejaz at 12:41, 20 January 2006 | Report This Post

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