There wasn't much about "Insomnia" that made me wanna see it. Though I like detective movies, this one didn't seem very interesting. The trailers didn't grab me, and though I like Al Pacino and Hilary Swank, I'm not a big Robin Williams fan (he's a good actor, but not a great actor... his Oscar for Best Supporting Actor in "Good Will Hunting" wasn't deserved). Ultimately, what made me go see this movie was the man who directed it. "Insomnia" was directed by Christopher Nolan, the writer and director of the great movie, "Memento." I went to see "Insomnia" solely because of my trust in the director. As I expected, I ended up liking "Insomnia" a lot. It wasn't as good as "Memento," but I didn't think it would be.
Unfortunately, way too much about this movie is given away in the ads, and in just about every movie review. Shockingly enough, Roger Ebert, who usually says way too much in his review, has a spoiler warning before giving away many of the secrets that are given away in the ads anyway. I wish he did that for all of his reviews, but that might be asking too much. If you've seen the trailer or the TV spots to "Insomnia," and especially if you've read some of the reviews, you probably know more than you should. I won't do that, though. This review, like all my other ones, will be completely spoiler-free.
Actor George Clooney and director Steven Soderbergh (Oscar winning director of "Out of Sight" and "Ocean's Eleven," both of which starred Clooney, as well as "Traffic" and "Erin Brockovich") started their own production company, and since their both listed as Executive Producers of this movie, it's safe to assume that their production company was involved with the making of this film. I think we're gonna be seeing a lotta great movies coming from their production company.
The cast of "Insomnia" is excellent. It's headlined by three Oscar winners, and the supporting cast is great, too. The three main stars are Al Pacino (won a Best Actor Oscar in 1993 for "Scent of a Woman"), Robin Williams, and Hilary Swank (she won a Best Actress Oscar in 2000 for "Boys Don't Cry"). All three of them gave outstanding performances, even Robin Williams, who, like I said earlier, I think is overrated. The standout is Hilary Swank, though. She's a phenomenal actress, and she's exceptional in this movie. The supporting cast is really good, too. Martin Donovan (very good actor I've seen in several Hal Hartley movies... he was also really good in "The Opposite of Sex") is great as Al Pacino's partner. Nicky Katt (he was the scary Carnoburger Cashier in the cult classic masterpiece, "The Doom Generation"... he plays "Harry Senate," a teacher in the popular TV show, "Boston Public") is great as the local cop who isn't very happy to see Al Pacino get involved in his case. Paul Dooley (great character actor who is best known to people in my generation as Molly Ringwald's father in the hilarious 80s classic, "Sixteen Candles") is really good as the man in charge in the police station. Fans of the recent cult classic "Ginger Snaps" (I gotta thank my buddy AJ for introducing me to that movie) will be happy to see Katharine Isabelle (she played "Ginger" in "Ginger Snaps"). Her role is small, but it's an important one. Though she's in the movie for only a few minutes, she makes quite an impact. Out of all the supporting players, my favorite has to be Maura Tierney. Maura Tierney is the cute gal who was the female lead in the TV show, "NewsRadio," and now, she's in "ER." She was also very good in "Forces of Nature." There's something about Maura Tierney that I like a lot. I think she's very pretty, but it's not just that. I guess it's a certain "everywoman" quality she has that makes me like her characters instantly. With "Insomnia," she plays a woman who coulda been a very simple and "blah" character, but she makes her character a lot more interesting than she should be.
As I said earlier, "Insomnia" was directed by Christopher Nolan, and he did a great job here. He does a lotta interesting things with flashback sequences and extreme close-ups so that you think you're seeing one thing, but as the movie goes on, you see that it means something else. For example, you see several moments in flashback of the murdered girl laughing. You later find out why she's laughing, and what happens immediately afterwards, and it's pretty unexpected. Also, there's an extreme close up of... something. You can't really tell what it is, but after an important backstory is explained, you can figure it out. Little things like that make this movie fascinating. As for the script, it was written by Hillary Seitz, and this is her debut. Her script was based on the original screenplay by Nikolai Frobenius and Erik Skjoldbjærg, as this movie is a remake of a Norwegian film from 1997.
It's interesting to me that after making "Memento," which is one of the most original movies I've ever seen (despite it being uncannily similar to an episode of "The X Files" that I saw), Christopher Nolan decided to work on a remake. The original was directed by Erik Skjoldbjærg, who went on to direct a small American film called "Prozac Nation" that had a cast that included Christina Ricci, Anne Heche, Michelle Williams, Jason Biggs, and Jessica Lange.
"Insomnia" gets a little slow at times, but I still like it a lot. The performances are excellent, and it's beautifully shot. With "Insomnia," director Christopher Nolan proves that "Memento" wasn't a fluke. The guy really is a tremendous talent.
Scale of 1-10: 8