The best thing about Christopher Nolan's Insomnia is that it's a remake that really takes advantage of re-doing an existing story. Without altering the main plot or making significant changes to what happens, screenwriter Hillary Seitz managed to outline a very different movie, with its own theme to explore and its own difficult questions to answer, from the 1997 original of the same name.
This is Nolan's follow-up to his impressive breakout Memento. It's his first big studio film and his first outing with Warner Bros, a partnership that later leads to the rebirth of the Batman franchise and mind-bending sci-fi picture Inception; the latter's theatrical release this week being the primary reason for this Blu-ray release, which comes with a $7.50 coupon for an Inception movie ticket.
Set in a fictional Alaskan small town where the sun doesn't set a certain time of the year, Insomnia opens with LAPD Robbery/Homicide detective Will Dormer (Al Pacino) and his partner Hap Eckhart (Martin Donovan) flying up to assist in the investigation of a teenage girl's ghastly murder, committed by lonely crime author Walter Finch (Robin Williams).
The film doesn't spend much time in the procedural aspect of it; partly because there's not a lot of suspects to play off of, partly because Robin Williams' voice is still recognizable even in ominous-villain-phone-call mode. The plot's true ignition sets off when, during a raid to arrest Walter, Will accidentally shoots and kills Hap—in full view of Walter—and then attempts to cover it up, giving Walter the edge he needs to make Will cooperative.
Pacino's Will Dormer is a much more sympathetic character than the dark Norwegian counterpart played by Stellan Skaarsgard, especially with the soft-spoken manner Pacino plays a sleepless man at the point of unraveling, but his continued efforts to absolve himself of responsibilities betrays that sympathy. Meanwhile, Williams applies his usually affable demeanor, resulting in a disarmingly friendly villain.
The Norwegian film is more concerned with the pairing of the cop and the killer as operating on different sides, but linked by a common appetite for sexual gratification and self-entitlement more so than they are linked by a crime. In contrast, Nolan's film is more about the spontaneity of immoral acts. Will and Hap's disagreed on how to handle an Internal Affairs probe into their department back in LA, and Hap's stance might have cost Will his top cop reputation. Was the shooting an honest mistake on Will's behalf, or did he mean to kill Hap in order to prevent him from testifying? Will himself doesn't know, and neither do we. The parallel with the killer this time is not based on the perversity of the male ego, but the fragility of human judgment. Walter Finch was similarly faced with a split-second decision when a teenage girl's life was in his hands, and he chose poorly. It's this new, arguably more thought-provoking approach to the same story that makes this film a cut above all the other Hollywood remakes of foreign thrillers.
It approaches these themes a bit too directly, though, carrying the issues out in open dialogue, which we can argue is a consistent weak point in Nolan's filmography. The situation resolves too neatly and concisely (the final line of the film is among the most predictable closing line ever), and Hilary Swank's uninteresting role as a rookie Alaskan cop investigating Hap's shooting is seemingly shoehorned in just so the protagonist can verbalize a last minute summation of the moral of the story. It could've benefited from being less rigid and more ambiguous, like its predecessor.
What fortunately carries through from the original is the bold idea to do a film noir in daylight. We're used to these tawdry stories taking place at night with shadows and dark corners, but here all the same noir tropes are played out under sunshine and snowy caps. It gives the criminal acts an urgency and vulnerability, also a being so out in the bright open. This constant intrusion by the sun also serves as a visual representation for Dormer's nagging guilt. As if agreeing with his conscience, sunlight visits him at night and keeps him away from sleep.
Insomnia is certainly Nolan's least celebrated film (even The Prestige and The Following have their vocal fans) but it's also his least overt; a smooth psychological drama without the elaborate machinations of his other films. For the most part, it relies simply on the verbal interaction of two men, and it stands out for it.
Blu-ray Bonus Features
Despite the Blu-ray transfer doing great justice to Wally Pfister's very aware, very precise cinematography (especially in shots of the Alaskan wild), it's pretty obvious that this was a rush job to link chains with Inception's release. The bad news is that none of the extras are new, they're carried over from the 2002 DVD; but the good news is that they were already some of the best supplements I've seen on a DVD release.
Keeping with with the name of the movie is "Eyes Wide Open," a research piece that interviews chronic insomniacs and doctors about the dangers of staying awake, as well as cementing the accuracy of Dormer's sleep-deprived actions in the movie.
There are numerous scene-specific commentaries from the cast and crew, and it's very nice that Wally Pfister is allowed to talk about the difficulties of not only shooting in the wild, but also conveying a dark mood with ever-present sunlight. My favorite feature has to be "180º," a fascinating and informative seventeen-minute conversation between Al Pacino and Christopher Nolan that has them talking about acting and directorial choices that come into play when you're making a movie.
The features seem to be geared towards those interested in the nuts and bolts of feature film production rather than just an "inside look." Nolan's director's commentary even reflects that by shuffling the order of the scenes to the shooting order so Nolan can comment on it from a production standpoint. This is a valuable thing that really takes advantage of DVD/Blu-ray capabilities, and I really hope to see more well-prepared commentaries like this.
"Insomnia" is on sale July 13, 2010 and is rated R. Drama, Thriller. Directed by Christopher Nolan. Written by Hillary Seitz (screenplay), Nikolaj Frobenius and Erik Skjoldbjærg (1997 screenplay). Starring Al Pacino, Hilary Swank, Maura Tierney, Robin Williams, Martin Donovan.
