Movie Realm Review of Insomnia by NeCRo of Movierealm

Rating: Null/10 (26 May 2002)

Movie Title - Insomnia
Date of review - 5/25/02
Year of movie - 2002
Stars - Al Pacino, Robin Williams, Hilary Swank
May Contain Spoilers
NeCRo's Rating - 9 skulls out of 10

Plot
A veteran uber-detetective Al Pacino is sent in to Alaska from L.A. to investigate a murder that the locals haven't the foggiest what to do. He quickly finds the culprit that committed the crime, but why is it not over at that?
Acting
Oh yea, this is a perfect movie for people like me who are more about actors and acting than other aspects of movies. Al Pacino comes back after his 2 year hiatus from movies back into a role made for him. Yea Al does his usual shtick and verbal mannerisms, but who doesn't like those, hehe =)
Also along for the ride is Robin Williams who does his first evil role and he is awesome and never breaks down into comedian status. He is relentless as the murderer with an often weird persona about him. The supporting cast which boasts all nobodies and no character actors does pretty well.
The only real downside in the acting dept. is Hilary Swank, but only because her role was small and feeble. If she was given a better character I know she would've pulled it off a lot better.
Violence and Gore
oddly nothing too nasty or violent. You see a body, but nothing bad and the only real violence comes in the form of normal gun violence with minimal blood. Also has some women being shoved and slapped around. For a dark and seemingly violent movie it's really prude friendly, sadly.
T&A Nudity Factor
dead body which happens to be a woman, has some nice cleavage though (for a dead chick of course).
Overall View of the movie (review)
Well what can I say, I went in with overly high expectations and damn near needed it to be perfect to make me happy. Why? Cause it's directed by Christopher Nolan of course. Nolan, who directed one of my favorite movies of all time Memento came back with more funding and this is his second outing. Although this movie is not up to the level of Memento it is still a great movie. I don't want to get off on a rant about Memento, but that movie had the perfect amount of originality and original film concepts. Insomnia...well he tries to redo the odd circumstance of memory loss only in this movie it is about insomnia and it's effect on a detective that must be aware and attentive at all times otherwise he would be screwed.
I thought the execution of the actual insomnia infusion was not too clear throughout because even though you could tell that Pacino was physically feeling the affects of insomnia he still managed to be, to me, sharp and as attentive as he was when he first arrived. There were some parts like when he was driving that it was blatantly shown, but still it wasn't like how the memory loss affected Guy Pearce in Memento. Enough about that though, that is my only real complaint besides Swank's role which just should've been more, but he gave Pacino and Williams great roles to make up for it.
The tension between Pacino and Williams is the main aspect of this movie. It's not a "whodunit" like most movies of this nature, this one has a twist that I have yet to see and I think it's a very good one. This is not about the chase but the morality of it all and makes this a very emotional movie at times and only adds to the psychological terror. The acting I must say again from Pacino and Williams is top notch and a must see. You could see traces of Memento in Insomnia though mainly through the editing which was near the same. Insomnia also had something that Memento didn't which is GREAT scenery. It takes place in Alaska and the area they filmed in was beautiful and made the dark atmosphere of the movie only that much better because of the remoteness of the scenery.
I still rate this movie very high cause even though it has some flaws that Nolan should've fixed it is still light years ahead of any thrillers that have come out this year and I highly recommend you catch this in the theatre so that you can get the full experience.