North To Alaska...

Rating: 8/10 (17 June 2002)

A small commuter plane flies precariously over an eerily foreboding, ice encrusted Alaskan landscape at the beginning of INSOMNIA , director Christopher Nolan's spectacularly picturesque thriller. Its occupants, senior detective Will Dormer [ Al Pacino ] and his younger assistant Hap Eckhart [ Martin Donovan ] have been called to a remote Alaskan hamlet by the local police chief, a former cohort who once worked with them at their base of operations in Los Angeles. Summoned by their friend to help solve the brutal murder of a local high school girl , the invite also serves as a temporary buffer for Dormer, who is the subject of an Internal Affairs investigation.
The opening of this picture sets the tone for the entire film ; buffeted by high winds and choppy seas below, the tiny plane cautiously descends amid misty gray clouds pierced by mammoth , spruce covered mountains. Once on land , the plot takes hold of the viewer and never lets go, and leads detective Dormer on a disturbing cat and mouse pursuit that finds the killer all too quickly, but that is really not the main concern of this movie. Once the culprit is found, the ingenious screenplay then reverses things by having the mouse control the cat and ultimately both cat and mouse deceitfully aiding and abetting each other. This is the only way to hint at plot details without giving the movie away; as grim as the proceedings are, this is a hugely entertaining film graced first and foremost by a brilliant performance by Al Pacino as the beleaguered Dormer. Beset by his own demons, Pacino's character is also besotted by lack of sleep, initially provoked by problems back home but aggravated by Alaskan "white nights", a phenomenon in northern most areas where summer skies don't darken but take on a late afternoon ambiance.
Watching Pacino 's transformation from seasoned professional to a haggard husk of a man is fascinating. The scene at the Inn where Pacino rages on the phone to his testy superior in L.A. is acting of the highest order. Also commendable is Martin Donovan in his small role and Hilary Swank , the remarkable actress from BOYS DON"T CRY, superb as an eager detective assisting Pacino. The wild card in this movie is the appearance of Robin Williams as a writer of middling crime novels, a character so creepy it is jarring to see Williams essay this role, until you realize how fully he inhabits the character. It is a chilling performance. On a technical note, this is one of the most remarkable feats of film editing I've witnessed in years [ the entire section where Pacino pursues a hooded figure from a mountain cottage into the craggy gray mist deserves an Oscar unto itself! ]. Last but not least, the use of the panavision camera makes full use of the stunning locale, thanks to Wally Pfister's painterly camera eye.
Panavision's rectangular configuration makes a perfect frame for this film, and Pfister's compositions and color timing immerses you into the picture. This is Christopher Nolan's first film since MEMENTO , an oh-so clever film noir that told its story backward, a neat directorial hat trick but one I found exasperating to sit through. This time he tells a more linear tale and in the process has made a better movie.