Lack of Character development, cleverness leaves Insomnia in the dark

Rating: 5/10 (28 May 2002)

I was expecting a little more out of this movie than what i got. I expected a smart thriller which would keep me intrigued. The protagonist (Al Pacino character) is a walking cliche', you really don't feel him the way you would feel a great Pacino character. Pacino doesn't deliver in making us feel this guy.
The Robin Williams character is very well played as the adversary, he does a great job in making the audience understand the nature of this sordid fellow.
The supporting Cast puts in an unmomentous performance. The Swank character should have been better handled, and her relationship with Pacino could have been better exploited, i didn't get much from the exchanges between this Oscar caliber duo. Her metamorphosis from the ingenue detective left something to be desired, i really wanted to see more emotion and get a better grasp of this character and how it evolves from start to finish than what the film gave.
Finally throughout the whole movie, the concentrated effort is on how the Pacino character will find a way out of the situation, and you expect that there will be some sort of clever way that the resolution is achieved, this is where the film really cheated us. Instead it ended with a predictable overture and nothing to really think about as you get up to leave the theater except to ponder whether or not this really was the same directorial effort that produced 'Memento'. Ranks 5 out of 10.