Sleepy-eyed Pacino well met

Rating: 7/10 (7 June 2002)

Will Dormer (Al Pacino) is a Los Angeles cop who is sent along with his partner to a rural Alaskan town to investigate the murder of a young girl. While chasing a possible suspect, however, Dormer accidentally shoots his partner, with whom he had had a recent argument, in a dense fog. Rather than admit his own guilt, though, Dormer tries a coverup, thinking that no one could know what really happened. But someone did see - the man Dormer and his partner were chasing.
What follows is a taut cat-and-mouse game. Walter Finch (Robin Williams) knows what really happened in the murky fog, and he'd like to help Dormer cover it all up - but for a price. And in addition, the shooting of Dormer's partner is also being investigated, separately, by a novice detective named Ellie (Hillary Swank), who idolizes the veteran cop. Something's got to give - Ellie's a great young mind, and it'll only be a matter of time before she figures it out, right?
Every movie, save for the mindless, faceless action films, must have some kind of hook for the audience, something to make it unique. In this case, it's the fact that Williams is playing a bad guy - an atypical role. And it's a great role for him, too, as he does a fine job getting to the meat of the character. Pacino's got a good character to play as well - think Serpico - and he's at his best while underplaying thinking man's roles (okay, I'm not forgetting his younger, wilder days as Michael Corleone, but his best work as a pure actor are with these roles). Add in the beautiful Alaska scenery and the fact that it's light out for much, much longer periods than it is for those of us in the continental U.S., and you have quite the setting for a modern film noir, so to speak.
The title comes from the fact that Dormer simply can't sleep after he's accidentally (or was it an accident?) shot his partner. He's haunted by images of his dying partner; racked with self-doubt, he also has trouble sleeping because of the endless light in Alaska, resorting to taping his shades closed and placing objects in front of the window to make it darker. And because of his inability to sleep, he becomes very strung out, unable to think clearly.
This movie is from the director of Memento, which was a fascinating film noir in its own right, expertly written and directed. Because Memento was so good, I did have higher hopes for Insomnia. Insomnia isn't nearly as good as Memento, but it's still a very well done, intriguing psychological thriller with an excellent cast.