Conscience never sleeps

Rating: 7/10 (23 August 2013)

This is important movie in Nolan's directing career . After the success of "The Following" and especially "Memento" (two low budget thrillers) he got a chance to direct a big budget movie . He had chosen to create a remake of Swedish thriller – "Insomnia". It's not really hard to understand why . The Swedish original deals with themes and elements that Nolan talks about in his movies – the obsession , useful lie , morally ambiguous main hero , thin line between good and evil , women catalyst the plot , hero losing his grip on reality and the feel of neo-noir movie.
It's interesting that this is Nolan's only movie that wasn't written by him . Every other movie he made was either written by him or co-written . Here Hilary Seitz is the only writer , although Nolan did consult the screenplay with him. I haven't seen the Swedish original , but from what I've heard this movie isn't a shot by shot remake and few things were changed. For more on the changes you should see the IMDb FAQ .
"Insomnia" seems less impressive compared to Nolan's earlier and later thrillers . Maybe because it feels like a rather conventional story . While other Nolan's thrillers either explored unknown grounds ("The Prestige" , "Inception") or were told in creative non-chronological way ("The Following" , "Memento") here "Insomnia" feels very un-Nolan like. Maybe it's because Seitz is the writer . The dialogue don't have that certain rhythm or British humor . Many little plot twists that change the situation don't appear here . The story is rather linear (with the exception of flashbacks) . Some people even don't know that this movie was made by Nolan.
It doesn't mean that "Insomnia" isn't worth watching . Hell no. Since this is a cat and mouse game between cop and killer , where all the cards are put on the table from the beginning , Nolan tries different things here . The movie is much slower than his other movies . This time is all about the mood. Wally Pfister captures the cold beauty of Alaska well . The thriller is also very atmospheric and manages to capture how main hero is losing his grip on reality thanks to insomnia. There are two great scenes here : the shootout and the chase scene.
The movie relies heavily on the psychological tension between the hero and the villain . Without good actors "Insomnia" would fell apart . Here , Al Pacino gives one of his better performance , especially in recent years , as the tired of fighting injustice cop . This movie also shows Nolan's sixth sense when it comes to inspired casting – Robin Williams. Before "Insomnia" and "One hour photo" people would laugh at the idea that Williams would play a criminal . Here , he gives he's character some truly disturbing creepiness hiding under quite sympathetic face. His character comes out like a cynical weirdo who doesn't seems to notice that he's doing bad things. The chemistry between Pacino and Williams in on of the strongest things in the movie.
Hilary Swank seems to not have as much screen time as she needs and her character isn't too expanded . Too bad , because she feels quite crucial to the story . Also , the ending is kinda a letdown in that way it's not impressive and feels uninspired.
"Insomnia" is a good thriller that asks important question : how far would you go to defeat evil ? In a way it's a take on Dostoyevsky's "Crime and punishment". I love the metaphor here – conscience never sleeps . Just for that "Insomnia" is worth watching. Nolan's weakest movie yet is still a good movie. I give it 7/10.