Lacking real suspense and anything unique, this is Christopher Nolan's least interesting work, by far

Rating: 4/10 (21 August 2013)

At a time where Swedish actor Stellan Skarsgård hadn't yet become Hollywood famous, a low-budget Scandinavian thriller film entitled Insomnia with him in the leading role garnered some reputation after eminent American film critics as Roger Ebert praised it. Five years later, in the year of 2002, British director Christopher Nolan adapted the material into a way bigger production, brought in A-listers Al Pacino, Robin Williams, and Hilary Swank, re-located for a small town in Alaska, while keeping the original title. The plot stayed the same as well: a long-time LAPD detective and his younger colleague are sent to The Last Frontier to assist in a homicide investigation. Before long, Insomnia veers away from the typical crime thriller when Pacino's character suffers from the eponymous illness and the delinquent suddenly crops up – having an ace up his sleeve.
As an adorer of David Fincher's Se7en, I was instantly hooked by the John-Doe-esque suspense, but contrary to Kevin Spacey's intriguing psychopath, Insomnia's bad guy doesn't provide us with a spellbindingly intense finale, but merely a clichéd TV movie showdown. As fascinating as psychological thrill can be, omitting any other suspense rarely works. Two sub-par action sequences and brief glimpses of Pacino's insomniac hallucinations are all we get in these two hours and in this case, less isn't more. Such perpetual lack of intense scenes or violence could only be excused if it were a PG-13 film, which it is not! All of this is only slightly spiced up by what is most definitely Al Pacino's best acting performance in this century.
Even though Nolan has several good approaches, Insomnia is nothing more than generic, unspectacular, and forgettable in the long run. Hillary Seitz's adapted screenplay is laden with crime show stereotypes and gratuitous dialogue but lacks real character development or any unique elements. The best example for this is Hilary Swank who obviously has the most unfavourable role as an aspiring assistant detective that wants nothing more than to get advise from the old-established cop. Due to all of that, remarkable achievements in terms of visuals can't help the film anymore than Pacino's dedicated acting and Insomnia is best watched on a weekday evening while eating lunch and conversing with your partner.