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Insomnia stars Al Pacino as a veteran L.A. cop who is sent to Nitemute, Alaska with his partner Hap Eckhart (Martin Donovan) to solve the murder of Kay Connell. Up in Nitemute, it’s summer and the sun doesn’t set, causing problems sleep-wise for Pacino’s character Will Dormer (Dormer, and forms of it, mean “sleep” in many languages). However, while trying to solve the murder, he accidentally shoots and kills Hap, while still being sleep deprived. Ellie Burr (Hilary Swank), an excited cop in Alaska, is now on the shooting of Hap, which everyone believes to be the killer of Kay.
Soon, Walter Finch (Robin Williams), calls Will during his sleepless nights, commenting that he saw Will shoot his partner. Of course, that means that Finch is the killer, but how is Will going to prove that, because “You only know because I told you.”
Don’t go into Insomnia looking for a thrill-a-minute. There’s a few tense scenes, like the fog, the log chase scene, and the ending, for sure, but it’s awfully hard to enjoy them as much since Nolan uses such quick cuts, it makes it look like Blair Witch 3. Each scene could have been done in 40,000 takes, and it looks it. I found it rather nauseating. What I didn’t find nauseating, however, was the acting. Pacino was excellent as Dormer, and so was Williams, with three movies in 2002, even though he didn’t have much screen time, and was billed second.
Maura Tierney plays a hotel clerk-waitress person in the hotel Will and Hap stay at, and she eventually becomes important. Jonathan Jackson was Kay’s boyfriend and is being framed for the murder. Although it thinks of itself of being confusing, it actually isn’t. Well, not at least until the whole 9MM thing comes around. I really wish that they could have played the insomnia theme more. About the only thing it was good for was a quick jump and to fill some time. If it had been a major point, like Leonard’s loss of short-term memory in Memento, it would have worked. Maybe, however, Nolan wanted to steer away from his other movie. I would suggest seeing Insomnia, but don’t set you scopes too high.
Rated R for language, some violence, and brief nudity.
Review Date: February 28, 2003