Welcome The Young Hitchcock

Rating: 10/10 (1 August 2002)

There are movies, many kinds of movies, as the art of movie making evolves many genres have evolved and these many genres in their wake have left behind precious treasures.
Popular genre and unpopular genres populate the film landscape: one among them literally invented by Alfred Hitchcock was the `Noir'.
Let us study the meaning of Noir; a search on the web would give you the following meanings.
· A genre of crime literature featuring tough, cynical characters and bleak settings. · Suggestive of danger or violence.
Insomnia, Directed by Christopher Nolan, is true to the above meaning, The movie is based on a movie called the Insomnia, written by a two Norwegians, Nikolaj Frobenius and Erik Skjoldbjaerg, The first insomnia is a Norwegian film directed Erik Skjoldbjaerg,
A super cop and his partner arrive in Alaska from L.A. to assist the police there to solve the murder of a 17 year old girl, an investigation into the super cops past is suggested and a strange rift is established between the cops that arrive from L.A. the body leads to the killer the killer is trapped and while in pursuit within the Alaskan fog the super cop shoots at killer but kills the partner, the Killer is witness to this and begins to black mail the Super cop, It's a mistake but because of the investigation on his past practices the super cop goes to some lengths to cover up. Lengths like, a false report, routing the bullet to the murderer and a string of others.
Set in the Alaskan brightness, The mood is bleak a constant cloud overhang and the light continuing thru the night, The story is simple we know the murder and the murderer almost immediately and there is not much intrigue there. Infect there is no intrigue at all, but in abundance is the talent of the director, the talent of the actors and the handling of their respective talents. There are some directors like Sam Mendes who succor on the color of his characters and let them lead the mood and there are some that succor on the plot and lets the plot dictate the mood. The later is definably Hitchcock and in this our times it is another Britain, Chris Nolan. This above arguments supportive display is Insomnia.
The super cop, Detective Will Dormer' is Al Pacino and the murderer is Walter Finch' Robin Williams, the detective Ellie Burr' is Hilary Swank assists and adores Dormers work, Ellie burr character carries a streak of non-ironic in the filed of cynical characters, like a bright flower in a barren farm. One claims the other and highlights other. -I had consciously excluded her from the plot synopsis because her character is constructed within the story like eyes within the human body, She is present in a vital character but not significant to the vacant obvious plot, By way of revealing the story thru the bright flower the rather dark story has a shadow of brightness to it. The afore mentioned plot is just the infrastructure a Chess board, a rich, dark yet an amazing mood within which minds of the characters move, where the plot and the mood do the tango.
The Plot is obvious the movement of the characters is obvious and so why did I drag my wife to the movie for my second and her first? Good Movies are like cherished moments, like those photographs that are tucked in those album jackets and extract emotion or related emotions from you very now and then. Like those Hitchcock's in your library. They are revisited again and again, probably for a scene or a string of them. This is a Movie that has no intrigue that draws the audience but draws you in for its directorial genius that ties in tough cynical characters in a bleak setting with a suggestion of danger.
So is it wrong to place it among the other Film Noir?