Once again an awful Hollywood remake of a brilliant European thriller!

Rating: Null/10 (14 July 2003)

The original (Norwegian) version of Insomnia really impressed me, and was one of the most interesting twists on the standard cop-solves-murder formula I've seen for years. I really tried to keep an open mind about this remake, putting aside the examples of the lousy Hollywood remakes of brilliant European thrillers 'Spoorloos' ('The Vanishing') and 'Nattevagten' ('Nightwatch'), and saying to myself "this time it's Christopher Nolan, it's gonna work out fine!" ('Memento' is one of my favourite movies of the last ten years). Even a quick glance at the DVD cover and the phrase "cat and mouse game" jumping out didn't deter me. But after the opening scenes of the movie, noting that the cop (Pacino)'s partner (Martin Donovan) was considerably younger not older as in the original, hearing all the internal affairs sub-plot, I started to get a bad feeling. And then, after a crucial plot point I won't reveal for those who have yet to see the movie, there's a scene involving a dog... well as soon as that happened my heart sank and I said "oh, I see what they're going to do. I know EXACTLY where they're going to take this". Then the movie, much to my dismay, continued along it's cliched way, and every single thing that made the original so fresh and fascinating was thrown out the window! If you haven't seen the original you just won't know what you're missing, but believe me, it is so much better than this! It wasn't just the plot alterations and the expanding/changing of certain characters that ruined this movie for me, I also though Pacino's performance was lousy. I defy anyone to say that he is even CLOSE to the level of Stellan Skarsgard's superb performance in the original movie. I believed Skarsgard's character, I didn't believe Pacino's. I really don't know why Christopher Nolan would agree to direct a movie with such an awful, cliched script when 'Memento' showed he is capable of writing much more original and exciting scripts himself. 'Insomnia' is yet another example of an awful Hollywood remake of a superior European thriller. Please try and see the original, it is ten times better than this!