Insomnia: Flawed But Acceptable Remake

Rating: 5/10 (26 July 2010)

As mentioned in my review of this film's 1997 Norwegian parent, of late I am deeply interested in the similarities and differences between foreign language films and their American remakes. With a fondness for both Scandinavian cinema and Al Pacino, the Insomnias were an obvious case to investigate.
Remaining faithful to its forebear in terms of the main plot, Insomnia gives us Detective Will Dormer, assigned to the investigation of a 17 year old girl's murder. Amidst difficulty adjusting to the midnight sun of Alaska, an unfortunate accident forces him to lie about his actions. He becomes haunted by both his guilt and the threatening musings of the girl's murderer, who knows the truth.
An interesting opening credits sequence combines images of a bloodstained fabric with the beautiful Alaskan setting this remake calls home. A fair answer to the original's setting, the remote wilderness offers incredible scenery, its iciness as entrancingly mysterious as the unexplained sanguine fibres. The first and most noticeable difference to set this apart from its Norwegian counterpart is the female detective, played here by Hilary Swank. Despite Swank's entirely likable performance, one cannot help but lament this change of direction. The original character's austerity was her strength; the alternative's naivety her weakness. The mentor-student dynamic which forms between Pacino and she is, while unique and understandable, far less effective than the tension of the original relationship. Due to a combination of the newly introduced IA subplot, the dropping of the retirement age and concomitant hearing problems of the main detective's partner, and the lack of an American gun ban, Dormer's "accident" and whether it is indeed that becomes more the focus of attention than the guilt of Engström's. Additionally, the original's heavy usage of insomnia in a metaphorical sense is largely replaced here by its physical effects. More realistic? Probably. More effective? Absolutely not. It only really comes into play in the finale, an action filled Hollywood shootout that drags a flawed but acceptable remake down in its last act. Pacino's latter-day madness is on full display here, much different to Skarsgård and, much as I love Al, a less compelling performance. Now Williams, however, takes his part and flies with it, bringing something new and creative to his adaptation: one of disappointingly few improvements upon the original film. An intoxicatingly interesting point to be made is that the dead dog into which Dormer shoots his decoy bullet replaces a live one shot by Engström: a fascinating difference which speaks volumes, both about the difference in characterisation and the allowances and tolerances of the respective film industries.
As a remake, Insomnia is certainly poorer than its source, replacing some key plot points with less effective ones and adding an ending which is as trashy as the one it replaces is superb. Standing alone as its own work, it mostly manages to present its ideas decently and entertainingly, crafting a film better than much of the other schlock that gets churned out. If only we lived in a better world, the budget of this could have gone to distributing the original. C'est la vie, alas...