Insomnia

It occurred to me recently that I’d seen all but one of Chris Nolan’s full-length movies. Thusly I put this movie in my Netflix queue and waited breathlessly, which led to asphyxiation and subsequent death. I got better though.

While suffocating, I read up a bit on the movie that I would watch after my resurrection. It’s actually one of those gol dang remakes, this time from Norway. I know nothing about the original other than that. This new one from 2002 stars Al Pacino and Robin Williams, so it can’t be that pointless. It starts out much like Twin Peaks in that a girl has been found dead in a small town, and some outside investigators come to figure out whodunnit. Then some guy gets shot in an inopportune fashion and Al Pacino can’t sleep. By the way, it’s set in Alaska during the 24 hours of light thing, which exacerbates his problem. Robin Williams comes in later and becomes a sort of rationalization for past events, both Pacino’s friend/advisor and adversary. It’s a bit of a weird relationship, and it kind of fits with the atmosphere of uncertainty brought on by sleep deprivation. Meanwhile, Horseface McGee (Hilary Swank) (actually she’s not that bad looking) is looking into said unfortunate death from the beginning, and becomes a half threat/half distressed damsel in the process. Then people shoot each other and it’s over.

I have to say this is the least entertaining Nolan movie. Both Pacino and Williams put forth solid performances, but the insomnia element just doesn’t grab me as much as the memory loss from Memento or the (spoiler removed) conceit from The Prestige. The murder-mystery part is not made mysterious at all. Honestly I just don’t have a lot of empathy for Pacino’s plight either. I’ve seen a lot of complaints that Nolan’s style is too clinical and emotionless, and I think it’s the most evident in this movie; Pacino is the only one with emotion, but it doesn’t really show that much. It’s not a bad movie, it’s just kinda boring.