Excellent Psychological Thriller

Rating: 8/10 (13 August 2009)

Christopher Nolan and Al Pacino are both are masters of their craft, and it great to see them working together. Insomnia is the best film Pacino has done since Heat and Christopher Nolan's first Hollywood, allowing him to re-boot Batman.
Set in Alaska during the summer of 24-hour daylight, a 17-year-old girl had been murdered in a small town. LA police detectives Will Dormer (Al Pacino) and Hap Eckhart (Martin Donovan) have been asked to help the small town investigate. Both are experienced detectives, friends with the police chief and they are being investigated by Internal Affairs in their native city. Whilst investigating Dormer sets out to find the evidence, know every thing about the victim and match the information to a suspect. He quickly finds out that her boyfriend was abusive (the local bad boy), she had a fallen out with her best-friend and received expensive gifts. After setting a trap for the murderer goes wrong an officer is injured, but worst of all Dormer shots and kills Eckhart. It's seems to be a tragic accident but Eckhart believed it was deliberate. Dormer blames it one the killer. Now Dormer has a 3 way challenge, to find the killer and battle his mind games, cover up him killing Eckhart which is being investigated by a talented young officer Ellie Burr (Hilary Swank) and battle the affects of guilt and insomnia.
Insomnia is a clever, tight thriller, with themes about guilt, psychological damage and the grey world of right and wrong. Nolan handles the material with skill and keeps the audience guessing. He slowing builds the jigsaw. Some pieces are obvious, some more subtle. You find out who the killer is pretty early, like in real life the prime suspect is normally the killer. But this is a film about mind-games and the affect of insomnia and guilt. Nolan keeps the film going and keeps it under 2 hours. The writer and director does a good job handling the multi-layered, but interlinking plot so you don't get lost in the film.
There are excellent actors in the film. Al Pacino is brilliant, as he normally is. He is best actor in the film and his character has some similarities to his character in Heat. He about to show the mix elements of the character, but still makes him sympathetic. Robin Williams shows he can be a good, serious actor, but his performance in One Hour Photo was better. Hilary Swank is also a good actress in this film. There were no weak links in the film acting wises.
My one criticism of the film is it was a bit too Hollywood, reminding me of Silence of the Lambs. I wanted something a little less conventional. But it is still a good movie.
If you like Insomnia I personally recommend Se7en, Heat and Zodiac.