Insomnia: an excellent thriller, and vintage Christopher Nolan

Rating: 9/10 (20 December 2011)

Insomnia is a great thriller with great characters, music, twists and turns, and is just what you expect when you see a Christopher Nolan film. I first saw Insomnia quite a few years ago now, and while I thought it was good, I was not blown away like I am with most of his other films. Because of that, I overlooked it and did not give it the credit it deserves. Re-watching it however, I can fully appreciate the film for the wonderful thriller it is, and not what I expected it to be.
Based of a Norwegian film of the same name, Insomnia stars Al Pacino as Detective Will Dormer, who is sent to Alaska do investigate a murder of a teenage girl with another LAPD detective. We quickly find out Dormer is somewhat of a legend among detectives; a local police officer Ellie Burr, played by Hillary Swank, had even done her college case study on him. Although a great detective, Dormer is about to be investigated by Internal Affairs for what happened on one of his previous cases, which is one of the main reasons he is in Alaska. Revealing anymore could be potential spoilers, so I will end the plot summary there.
The performances in Insomnia are excellent. Every character has their own view of what is happening in Alaska, and the performances back up these views. Swank's character Burr is an excited, young officer dying to be put on something more than misdemeanors. She is eager to take any advice Dormer may offer, and although inexperienced, she is determined to investigate all possible circumstance and catch the murderer. Dormer knows how to catch a killer, and knows one when he sees one. His job is complicated however, when he discovers it does not get dark where he is at, and is unable to sleep, hence the title Insomnia. Pacino does an excellent job at looking exhausted all of the time, and also allowing the lack of sleep to influence his thinking, and ability to do his job. It is great watching him on screen. Robin Williams, who is also in this movie, delivers a great performance himself, straying away from the comedic roles he usually plays. He is also wonderful to watch.
One of the strongest aspects of Insomnia is the music. David Julyan does an excellent job creating an eerie, depressing, and almost hopeless feeling score that fits this film perfectly. I do not think it is as good as his Memento score, but they are both very similar and his score definitely adds to Insomnia. I hope when Nolan is done with the Batman trilogy he works with David Julyan again. I love the scores they put together for Memento, Insomnia, and The Prestige, and it would be great to hear more of those types again. I love what he does with Hans Zimmer, the main Batman theme gives me goosebumps just about every time, but I also enjoy these softer scores once in a while.
The story in Insomnia is very good too, but there are a few plot holes that do not get addressed. There are also a few moments that I think real cops would have found something they did not, or check something they did not. These instances are pretty uncommon though, and definitely do not distract from the film for long. Still it would have been nice to see a few of these cleaned up to ensure more believability.
Overall, Insomnia gets a 9 out of 10 for me. Great actors, characters, music and a good, solid story with few holes is something every thriller should have. It is classic Christopher Nolan; it has everything you would expect in one of his films. I also believe a rating of 7.2 on IMDb is a little low, it should be at least above a 7.5. Maybe being a remake, or not marketed correctly contribute to this. Regardless of the reasons, Insomnia is and excellent thriller that is definitely worth being checked out.