More Great Work From Nolan; Masterful Work From Pacino

Rating: 8/10 (29 May 2002)

Al Pacino has always been known and rewarded for his loud, showy, abrasive, and larger-than-life characters. He's garnered Oscar nominations for big, in-your-face roles such as in Dick Tracy and The Godfather, and finally won for Scent of a Woman, in which his gargantuan, wild performance literally carried an otherwise average film. That's why it's such a shock and treat to see him playing the lead character, Detective Will Dormer, in Insomnia as a man so lost and broken in spirit that you can see the failure, defeat, and exhaustion on his face. This isn't a variation of his shouting, impassioned, bordering-on-caricature personas; it's a performance of subtlety and depth as he slowly becomes bogged down by both guilt and lack of sleep. In short, it may be Pacino's best performance of his career.
L. A. detectives Will Dormer and partner Hap Eckhart (Martin Donovan) arrive in the small Alaskan town of Nightmute (sumptuously photographed) to assist local police in the murder of a young girl. The town is in the middle of a 6-month period of constant twilight, with the sun never going down and light pervading all, adding to Dormer's sleeplessness. Ellie Burr (Hillary Swank, in a perfunctory role), a rookie cop, serves as their guide and helps with the investigation. Dormer and Eckhart are in conflict; Eckhart threaten sto give information to the LAPD about misconduct on Dormer's part. During a chase for the killer, Dormer accidentally shoots his partner. The killer sees this, and uses it to blackmail him into helping him flee police capture.
At the midway point, the murderer is revealed, and is played by Robin Williams. Again, here is a performer known for his energetic and spontaneous work in a variety of comedy and family films. Under Nolan's direction, Williams turns in a creepy cool performace, underplaying his role and imbuing the character with an intangible, offbeat quality. With the two main performers doing such quality work, it's sad that Hillary Swanks' role was not more fleshed out. Her job is too basically be in peril when the script calls for it or act suspicious. It's not so much that it's a poorly written character, it's just that a great performer deserves a great role.
Director Christopher Nolan has directed another fine thriller with Insomnia. Of course its much more conventional than Memento, but that's to be expected and really can't be held against a top-notch mindgame such as this. He gets fantastic performances out of his cast, especially Pacino with his masterful onscreen deterioration of his character. A well-paced and engrossing film, with just the right amount of action and a fascinating and thoughtful psychological dance between the two main characters. Nolan is filling the niche he carved himself in the suspense genre with more quality work.
8 out of 10