Insomnia

Rating: 10/10 (4 March 2005)

Memento was a brilliant inventive thriller from director Christopher Nolan, and this next film from him has the same impact. Basically Will Dormer (Al Pacino) is sent from the city to investigate the murder of a teenage girl in a small Alaskan town, along with his accomplice Ellie Burr (Hilary Swank), and partner Hap Eckhart (Martin Donovan). When they go to the scene of the crime, they see a man in the fog, and Dormer follows him in the fog with Eckhart, and unfortunately, he accidentally shoots his partner instead of the man. Instead of admitting to his guilt, he covers his tracks and makes an alibi. As he tries to sleep he is both thinking of his dead partner and what he has done, this is the insomnia. But soon his sleep will become less achievable when the man he tried to shoot, and the teenager's murderer calls and blackmails him. They eventually arrange to meet secretly, the man is local book writer Walter Finch (a non-comedic Robin Williams) who claims to share the same problem as Dormer, he accidentally killed the teenager. Also starring Liar Liar's Maura Tierney as Rachel Clement and Nicky Katt as Fred Duggar. There are some fantastic chase sequences, Pacino and Williams chatting, and great concluding scenes where Williams is at his sinister best. Robin Williams was number 19, and Al Pacino number 1 on The 100 Greatest Movie Stars, Pacino was also number 26 on The 100 Greatest Pop Culture Icons, and number 5 (along with Robert De Niro) on The World's Greatest Actor. Outstanding!