Brilliant acting, why not twist the story?

Rating: Null/10 (12 June 2002)

The first thing that I wondered when I left the theater this afternoon, and probably the only thing that hasn't already been said well, is that the storytelling lacked the brilliant twist of Memento, that is getting us inside the character's head through telling it backwards in ten-minute snippets. That was weird, but it worked perfectly for creating the sympathy needed to get into Leonard Shelby.

So what I thought immediately after seeing this flick is we need to be inside the head of Walter Finch, not Will Dormer. If these guys really want to play up the moral ambiguity at the heart of the film, the questions about what is murder and when, we should start at the beginning: make Finch the protagonist and Dormer the adversary. After all, that's how he would see himself right?

I mean, John Gammell could easily see through Leonard Shelby, just like Dormer can see through Finch. So why not follow the guy who doesn't get it? Have Finch, this guy who thinks he's committed no crime and thinks he can help out a cop who's made a mistake of his own, be our hero until the ending when the curtain is pulled up and Finch finally sees the light, just briefly.

The film is magnificently shot, edited, acted all around, and don't get me wrong, Pacino plays his character brilliantly. But we have seen this kind of guy before. I wish the story itself had been as unconventional as Memento managed to be. If you haven't seen Memento and you liked this...run to the video store NOW.

One last question - Insomnia's score is by the same guy as Memento, but it doesn't have the same effect. Am I the only one who's still haunted by the synthesized music from that movie?