Confusing

Rating: Null/10 (4 June 2002)

Insomnia is good until about two-thirds of the way through. Then it gets very confusing. People act in confusing ways, and say things you don't understand why they say them.
***Spoilers ahead***
The main thing that confused me was the bit about the boyfriend. Robin Williams mentions that the kid has a gun. Based on this, the cops ransack the kid's room and take him to jail. All of a sudden the kid's possession of a gun makes him the main suspect. But why? The girl wasn't shot. It doesn't make any sense.
Also, near the end, Dormer is asked if he shot his buddy on purpose or by accident. We know it was an accident, and he knows it, too. But now he says "I don't know." The only reason I think he'd say this is to squeeze more time out of the plot. It could be argued that he's become delirious because of his lack of sleep. But it's not believable, because we identify with him, and we know he's innocent.
The climactic scene, which takes place at the killer's summer home, is suddenly foist upon us with no reason. Why in the world would Hillary Swank drive all the way out there all by herself? The movie makes a big deal about how she's the idealistic junior cop who sops up learning like a sponge (a la Jodie Foster in "Silence"). Does it make any sense that she would take this risk? I guess common sense was overriden by the First Rule of Suspense Movie Endings: The female sidekick should always get herself alone with the suspect, so she can be hurt but then saved by the REAL hero (a man), and set up a hackneyed, shoot-em-up ending.
I also got completely confused by all the evidential guns and bullets that changed hands, and why they did so. I didn't find it possible to keep track of which gun was which and which bullet was which.
Anyway, it's not that bad of a movie, but I have a feeling it's another example of how Americans can take a good foreign book or movie and turn it into something trivial and cliched. At least they didn't opt for the False Ending, where the dead psycho is not really dead; this one floated in the water, and then sunk like a rock. Or at least that's what we think (do I hear a call for Insomnia II?).