comparing two Insomnias

Rating: 7/10 (21 April 2005)

I was searching through IMDb for comparisons between original Norwegian Insomnia from 1997 and Hollywood's Insomnia 2002, to find out whether it is worth to see the latter, and not to repeat the experience I've had with Vanilla Sky and Abre Los Ojos. It is not that I dislike the VS, but ALO obliterates the impression from VS completely, so I wondered if I should bother renting I02 (Insomnia 2002) at all. Well, I was surprised that I02 is worth viewing _even_ after I97. So, here I'll try to write for those who also wonder which one's better.
First, both are very good films, with excellent actors' work, graphics, and music, and I won't compare these. But I believe that I02 scenario is a bit flawed, because where I97 gives less or no reason at all for a particular response or action of a character, I02 invariably puts things so that the same response or action is the only choice for the character. To put it bluntly, psychologically I97 is more like a David Lynch's movie, whereas I02 resembles more a thriller with Michael Douglas, where all pieces are meant to move by a strictly defined orbit, a brilliant but still somewhat dumbed down version. I personally value the former kind of movies more, so naturally I97 gets more of my credit.
So, if you can, see both, I97 and then I02 ( at least I've seen them in that order ), but if you only want to choose just one, I97 would be, in my opinion, better.