Insomnia is Christopher Nolan’s third feature film and first studio-backed production. It stars big names like Al Pacino, Robin Williams, and Hilary Swank – all indicators the studios were finally ready to support Nolan after his first two critically acclaimed films, Following and Memento. Insomnia deals directly with themes of right and wrong from both sides of the criminal justice system: a killer wants to cover up a murder while the detective most likely to catch him also wants to cover up a second possible murder.
Buy Insomnia (2002) Blu-rayIn Nightmute, Alaska, a 17-year-old high school student has been found murdered. For some vague reason involving Internal Affairs, two Los Angeles detectives, Will Dormer (Al Pacino) and Hap Eckhart (Martin Donovan) are sent to Nightmute to help with the investigation. We learn that Dormer and Eckhart are under investigation back home by Internal Affairs. Eckhart tells Dormer that for his, and his family’s, benefit, he will be providing evidence against his partner when they return to Los Angeles. Dormer is angry with Eckhart, of course, but exasperating the situation is the fact that Dormer is experiencing severe insomnia in a land where the sun never sets.
The mystery of the dead teenager doesn’t turn out to be much of a mystery after all, and the murderer is easily baited into returning to the scene of the crime. There is a shootout in the fog in which Dormer “accidentally” kills his partner, Hap Eckhart: even Dormer isn’t positive if he is guilty or not in the incident. One would think that the death of an L. A. Detective in the town of Nightmute, Alaska would lead to a ton of inquiring minds showing up from California. Instead, the job of investigating the shooting in the fog is given to fresh-out-of-cop-school Ellie Burr (Hilary Swank).
The killer, Walter Finch (Robin Williams), somehow saw Dormer shoot Eckhart through the white-out fog even though nobody else could tell what was going on. Finch begins calling Dormer in the middle of the night somehow knowing that Dormer, too, suffers from insomnia. Finch also somehow knows about the Internal Affairs investigation. He somehow knows that Eckhart was going to give Dormer up to the I. A. folks. There are a lot of “somehows” in the middle of the film. Looking past them, though, is worthwhile because the scenes in which Pacino and Williams share the screen are riveting. The second half of the story is an excellent action film though likely to be predictable to many viewers. Insomnia is a strong film, it just isn’t one of Nolan’s strongest.
