3 stars

Rating: 7/10 (10 July 2002)

I remember the point during this film when the first event happened that would be a spoiler if I mentioned it, and it wasn't very far into the film. So don't expect this review to give much more than a feeling for who most of the characters are and the general atmosphere.
The film opens with detectives Will Dormer (Al Pacino) and Hap Eckhart being flown over some lovely but forbidding landscape in a twin engine float plane, discussing an investigation that Internal Affairs is doing on them back in Los Angeles. They arrive in Nightmute, Alaska, and are met by a junior detective named Ellie Burr (Hilary Swank) who is a big fan of Dormer's -- even having written a paper on one of his cases when she was at the police academy. Dormer looks tired already, and he hasn't even figured out yet that the sun won't set during his entire stay in this town.
The case they have been sent here to help out on is a murder of a high school girl. The very early parts of the investigation are routine, with the Los Angeles cops bringing a great deal of expertise to bear, helping the locals see what they may have missed or assumed. Then the aforementioned event happens, and the film becomes more interesting and also much more tense.
The performances are good, though unremarkable. Pacino is unable to sleep (hence the film's title), and becomes more and more tired as the days go by, and this seems believable. Swank is fine but isn't given as much to work with, except perhaps in one brief scene near the end. I did like Paul Dooley (who played the father in "Breaking Away") in the small role of the local police chief.
This film was directed by Christopher Nolan, whose previous film was the outstanding "Memento." This is a remake of a 1997 Norwegian film of the same name, which is available on DVD but which I have not seen. This film doesn't use as obvious of a hook as did "Memento," but it does frequently use short flash images to show what Dormer is thinking about. Not all of these images make sense at first, but eventually things do come together. And speaking of images, the cinematography is very good, especially of the Alaskan countryside (although much of the film was shot in British Columbia).
This film is very good, to the extent that I have been very close to giving it another half star. It's mostly gone from the theaters here, so see it soon if you can.
Seen on 6/23/2002.