atmospherically superior film

Rating: 9/10 (6 February 2006)

Insomnia takes the viewer to a small town in Alaska, during the summer, when the sun never sets. The characters and plot are very good, Pacino owns the role of the transplanted big city detective, Swank is excellent as the young but smart local cop, Williams the wild card.
But for me, the extraordinary thing about this film is the manner in which director Nolan communicates the effects of the insomnia that Pacino's character suffers from through the endless days.
It is not difficult to represent, for example, drunkenness or anger in an objective way -- that is, by having an actor act drunk or angry so the viewer sees the emotional state through gestures, speech and so on. But in Insomnia, we are taken inside the lead character's insomnia through visual and sound effects and treatments -- it is an ambitious technique and it works to tremendous effect.