Finally I could see a good thriller

Rating: 8/10 (25 October 2002)

Some days ago Woody Allen came to Spain to receive the prestigious Príncipe de Asturias Award, and he had time to express his personal opinion about Hollywood today. His recent film Hollywood Ending is a clear critic of what Hollywood has become. I have to say that I agree with him. Films are more and more expensive, but the results are worse and worse. It seems like there are no good writers yet, and films like The Red Dragon (which I saw today in its Spanish première) are -in my modest opinion, of course- a demonstration on how empty of ideas a film can be. But Insomnia is an exception among dozens of low quality films. It has a really good screenplay, with very good original ideas, and, also, the printed result is great. Al Pacino is splendid (does he overact a bit or is it just my imagination? Maybe it's only my imagination). Robin Williams is correct, he does his role well (it's his second bad guy role in just a few months) and the rest of the cast are also quite good. The opening scene is simply captivating. And the edition of the whole film is wonderful. It's a pleasure to see the first minutes of Pacino's scenes, full of short shots perfectly combined with plenty of subtle details. I enjoyed the whole film since it began until it ended. Nice story, perfect screenplay, solid acting, good music, wonderful cinematography and editing and good directing. A really good film. One of the best this year. 8-9 out of 10.