a killer's Socratic apology...and more...

Rating: 8/10 (3 January 2010)

I thoroughly enjoyed this film, despite the fact that there was a simple, two-word solution to Detective Dormer's sleep-deprivation problem: eye mask. Honestly, can anyone believe that the people who live in places with the problem of everlasting day have not caught on to this amazing technological development? In fact, decent hotels in such places would have their own built-in, two-word solution as well: window treatments.
But, of course, the glaring daylight was an extended metaphor for the detective's sorry plight, having little by little sacrificed his principles and ended in the horrible predicament of feeling the need to lie about his accidental shooting of his partner.
I loved the Alaskan (or Canadian?) landscape of this film. I also loved the fact that all of the locals looked as though they were a part of the Palin clan (one can only wonder whether a bit of inbreeding does not take place way up yonder...). But the best part of all, beyond Robin Williams' successful portrayal--way out of character--of a psychokiller, was the Socratic apology with which he relentlessly serenaded the poor sleep-deprived Dormer (played by Al Pacino): He didn't really mean to kill his victim, anymore than Dormer meant to kill his partner!
We have here, stripped of extraneous matter, a bit of Socratic wisdom: No one knowingly does evil. And it's hard to deny, since one way of understanding an action is as an expression of one's belief in the moment that this is a good or at any rate permissible thing to do, all things considered. Other actions, then, those that are not intended, are committed by the agent when he is literally "out of his head". This is a deep philosophical puzzle which can be fruitfully pondered over for many hours. It also explains extremely well how atrocities have been committed by "ordinary" people throughout the history of human society.
In the short documentary included on the DVD, Robin Williams went out of his way to dissociate himself from this way of exonerating a vicious killer. One senses that Williams feared that he may have been too convincing...
Overall, I found INSOMNIA very worthwhile. This was a thought-provoking, philosophical film with beautiful cinematography and some decent acting. Swank managed to pull-off the guileless hick that she was supposed to be, in part thanks to her somewhat buck-toothed smile. Pacino was convincing, but Williams was the star of the show.