Insomnia (2002) * * * 1/2

 

Directed by:  Christopher Nolan

Starring:  Al Pacino, Robin Williams, Hilary Swank, Martin Donovan, Paul Dooley, Maura Tierney

Insomnia isn't simply a thriller, but also a depiction of a weary cop worn down by mental and physical exhaustion.   Will Dormer (Pacino) is a Los Angeles detective being investigated by Internal Affairs.  As a favor to an old friend who is now the police chief in an Alaska town, Will and partner Hap Eckhart (Donovan) travel there to solve a murder of a teenage girl.  Will thinks this will allow the investigation back home to blow over, but Hap informs Will that he's going to a cut a deal which will likely end both of their careers.   

Will already can't sleep because this is the time of year in Alaska when it is 24 hours of daylight.  When Will asks to speak to a teen suspect because he is probably in school, another cop says, "It's 10:30...at night,"  Add the mounting pressure of the investigation and he probably wasn't in the right frame of mind to pursue another suspect in a thick fog.  Thinking he is aiming at the suspect, Will fatally shoots Hap dead, and the suspect saw everything.   Will lies about seeing the suspect shoot Hap, because even though the shooting was inadvertent, who is going to believe that he didn't kill Hap to silence him?

The killer, a local writer named Walter Finch (Williams), calls Will and verbally torments him with his knowledge that he saw the shooting.  He thinks Will will lead the investigation away from him and target someone else.  Local detective Ellie Burr (Swank), who idolizes Will, can't help but smell a rat because the angle of the shot just doesn't match up to forensics.  Meanwhile, days pass, and Will doggedly attempts to pursue Finch while lie upon lie builds up and his cognitive functions suffer due to lack of sleep.  Pacino gives us not only world-weariness, but he takes on the physical aspects of sleep deprivation brilliantly and convincingly.  Williams is a murderer forever trying to justify his actions by saying he's not at heart a bad man, but in a moment of anger, he did one wrong thing.  But we later see he is a cold, calculating, manipulative monster who essentially blackmails Will.  

Insomnia is an early Christopher Nolan film and a remake of a Swedish film made roughly five years earlier.  Nolan presents this crime story with an eerie feeling of dread surrounding everything.  Will is the protagonist, but not a hero.  Ellie is the closest thing to a moral center, but is she traveling down Will's path by bending over backwards to exonerate him?  We soon wonder why Will is putting himself through this torture.  Does he want to do the right thing at last after years of questionable ethics as a detective?  Or is he tormenting himself over guilt from killing his partner?  Or are the lies piling up on him and he won't be able to unbury himself?  The answer is likely all three, and Insomnia relentlessly examines that.