Enjoyable, but how about some aluminum foil for the window?

Rating: 7/10 (23 October 2002)

This is a solid murder mystery, with some great acting performances. Dormer(Pacino), a Los Angles detective comes to Alaska to help out on a murder in Alaska. He brings a partner, Hap, with him. In Alaska, a new police officer, Ellie Burr (Swank) is a fan of Dormer's and has studied his work in "the academy". At first the movie seems to be a straight forward "who doneit", but a couple of twists spring up. Dormer and his partner are having a conflict about an on going internal affairs problem back in Los Angles. It is apparent the pair have something to hide. Dormer has trouble sleeping in the land of the midnight sun, and his physical condition worsens through out the movie. Dormer is clearly a superiour detective, but his problems back in Los Angeles, crept up to affect his police work on this case. There are some twists in the plot that are clever, and make the movie fun to watch. Although, I had the ending pretty well figured out well in advance. A few things test believability...
** spoilers follow **
One being that Finch (Williams) seems to be able to just evade bullets and police, but simply turning and running. Viola... he is gone.
One of the major plot premises, is that Dormer can't sleep, because up in the part of Alaska they are in the sun never sets, so his bedroom always has the sun shining in. I kept thinking that if I was really in need of a dark room, I could figure out a way to black out the window. Also, Ellie, the local rookie cop in Alaska, just happened to be a big fan of Dormer's. In fact she did a case study on him at the academy. I'm not sure I really bought the likely hood of a local cop in Alaska doing case studies on Los Angeles cops. And then having them show up to solve a crime in your little town. But, the most significant twist in the plot involves the killer, witnessing Dormer doing something in which Dormer is trying to hide. This is kind of a clever concept, the policeman being blackmailed by the person he is trying to arrest. But, I didn't really buy the scenerio that got Dormer into trouble. They have the killer trapped, but he practically disappears into a fog so thick you can't see anything... except the killer apparently can see everything. Oh well... if you can over look that, you should enjoy the movie.