Review of Insomnia (2002) by Sierra-117 — 10 Nov 2019

Christopher Nolan’s 2002 crime thriller is, in my opinion, often overlooked by his fans and general audiences alike. I feel like perhaps they tend to have just come off the back of Inception, or The Dark Knight, and are surprised to see a film of such small scale coming from a director renowned for his high grossing blockbusters, but what they forget is that before Nolan was trying to become the next Kubrick (exaggeration I know), his films were much less high octane and in a sense far more indie, which is a style that to an extent I prefer. I was initially disappointed with insomnia’s slow pacing and narrative simplicity, but upon rewatching it I found my views on the film had drastically changed. The story takes place in Nightmute, Alaska, where a well respected detective (Al Pacino) and his partner are called over to investigate the murder of a 17 year old girl. On one hand, he faces scrutiny from.

Internal investigations for his morally ambiguous decisions in the past, a situation which is only made more intense by the accidental killing of his own partner. On the other he has to deal with Robin Williams’s Walter Finch, the murderer himself who seems only intent on playing mind games with Pacino. Finally to make matters worse, due to the story taking place in Alaska during the summer, meaning that during the night the sun stays out preventing him from getting any sleep, hence the name 'Insomnia'. It’s hard to pin down what exactly makes this movie so great in my eyes. For one, I absolutely adore how the atmosphere gradually increases in intensity as the plot begins to thicken. Pacino’s flawless performance (which may be my favorite of his) perfectly conveys his stress and fatigue, which is made all the more real by kinetic editing, that frequently cuts to brief flashbacks and hallucinations in order to catch the viewer off guard.

On the other hand the absolutely stunning scenery and beautiful score by David Julyan acts as a welcomed contrast to the otherwise overwhelming tension. As much as I love Hans Zimmer I do sometimes miss when Julyan scored Nolan’s movies. Robin Williams is also as always phenomenal, giving a performance so chilling it made me feel physically uncomfortable, similar to (although not quite as extreme as) his other 2002 thriller 'One Hour Photo'. Other than the aforementioned qualities, one of my favorite things about the film is that underneath the fact that it’s another suspenseful crime thriller (which I am a sucker for), insomnia is a dark, ponderous inquiry into morality of pragmatic "dirty cops" who bend the rules for the greater good. Pacino’s character is far from innocent, but at the end of the day does the end justify the means? Are his past illegal actions excused by the all good that comes from them?

At the beginning he is more or less comfortable with the reality that he has all this time been doing the right thing, but this idea is called into question the young and inquisitive Ellie Burr, who is played by Hillary Swank adding yet another stellar performance on top of both Pacino and Williams. In the end I could go on and on about why this movie is underrated, and why I believe it is one of Nolan’s best films, but for the sake of brevity I’ll leave it here. Ultimately Insomnia is a fantastic psychological thriller that has a lot more to it than meets the eye. It’s high levels of stress and themes of moral ambiguity are perfectly executed due to the stellar cast, fantastic editing and gorgeous contrasting cinematography and music.