From start to finish Insomnia is a winner. Christopher Nolan pulls off a great job of directing, knowing when to give away key information and when to hold back and let the audience discover things for itself. Al Pacino and Robin Williams bring their considerable talent to what is an inspired cinematic achievement. Insomnia is modern day film noir with an intriguing storyline and interesting characters in a remarkable setting. Hilary Swank holds her own, sandwiched between the two movie legends, in a role which, fair or not, will be compared to Jodie Foster's Clarice from The Silence of the Lambs. These three main players are all finely-nuanced actors with formidable screen presence.
Pacino is a respected L.A. cop sent to a remote area of Alaska to help investigate a murder. The plot thickens when we discover that his partner is about to make a deal and let Pacino take the fall for some past infraction. Then in a botched attempt at nabbing the killer, Pacino mistakenly shoots his partner; the catch being that the sole witness to this act is the killer himself. From here the story keeps moving, taking us along on a ride that we are not sure how it is going to end.
The heart of the story is Al Pacino as Detective Will Dormer. He gives one of his realest performances in many years as a world-weary cop who suffers from insomnia. And yes there are a few moments of classic Pacino ranting but in many ways it is very restrained. His inability to sleep is exacerbated by the fact that the sun never sets in this far northern climate, and as the film progresses he slips farther and farther into nervous exhaustion.
Robin Williams is Walter Finch, writer of dime-store detective novels and part-time psychopath. Williams plays the role straight, keeping his manic comic-ham persona completely out of sight. My one small complaint is that we are never really told much about how he became the killer we see. I mean he's middle-aged but never killed before? What was it about this particular girl and/or relationship that finally sent him over the edge? The audience can only guess at these things. Still he is a much more believable villain than the ridiculous Hannibal Lecter, meaning he has no special powers or talents enabling him to kill and then elude police.
Hilary Swank plays Ellie Burr, a young detective who idolizes Will Dormer and is thrilled at the chance to work with him. Before long, however, she knows perhaps too much about the man she has spent years aspiring to be like and must make a moral decision regarding his fate.
Three fascinating characters in a gripping story told with the visual style and pace of a master director. Sounds like three stars to me.
