under-appreciated Nolan film....

Rating: 8/10 (19 December 2009)

Nolan's sophomore effort is unfortunately jinxed as being his most underrated, although arguably his strongest film so far. A detective whose task is to nail a killer finds himself murdering a colleague, because he might have compromised his decisions on past cases to Internal Affairs. The man is conscientious - did he kill him on purpose, or was it a genuine accident ? He cannot decide, but either way he did fire the fatal bullet, and this robs him of his sleep - hence the title. Worst of all, the killer he's looking for saw him do it and is now threatening to compromise him further. So very Shakespearean - Nolan himself calls it "Hitchcockian" on the director's commentary. Pfister's camera takes in some gorgeous Vancouver scenery, and Al Pacino hits this one right out of the ballpark. Just watch Pacino during the interrogation scene. There's a beautifully acted moment when he is restraining himself terribly from lunging across the table and strangling the murderer - so much does he hate his guts. Nolan is so intensely focused on the internal drama of the leads, he chooses very simple and direct shots, which are nonetheless elegant. Compare this to David Fincher's Seven, an exquisitely stylized movie that is ultimately about nothing real. Unlike the chilling but wholly unrealistic John Does and Hannibal Lecters of the film world, killers in real life are most often the weakest of human beings - Fincher admitted this with regard to the Zodiac killer - and that is the whole point of Robin Williams' character in Insomnia : a weak, cowardly and very ordinary man who becomes a killer simply by unfortunate accident ; a forlorn middle-ager who dares to imagine himself in love with the first seventeen-year-old girl who gives him some attention, and then kills her when she offends him by literally laughing at his advances.
Admittedly Nolan's austere visual style may leave something to be desired for. Occasionally the film feels too talky - too much dialog and character-based exposition, and too little of things actually happening. But these are minor nitpicks.
Apparently there weren't enough Batmobiles and explosions to satisfy the popcorn-munching hipster douche bags who also saw this film. Empty thrillers like Seven and The Silence of the Lambs which are thematically hollow and pointless will always garner greater popularity than a deeply psychological film like Insomnia.