Warning, this review will contain spoilers

Rating: 8/10 (1 September 2002)

One thing that very few film directors, even good ones, seem to understand is that light can be just as frightening and disturbing as dark, if not more so. Bright light creates the same obscuring blanket as dark, depriving you of sight, hiding what should be in plain view, and creating a sense of otherness. Stanley Kubrick employed the disturbing power of light masterfully in "The Shining," the Coen Brothers transformed snow into negative night in "Fargo," Hitchcock used it brilliantly in the "Psycho" shower sequence, and now Christopher Nolan, the craftsman who created "Memento," transforms it into a metaphor for the terror of guilt.

Al Pacino plays Detective Dormer, a name that ironically recalls the Latin 'dormio,' sleep. He and his partner Hap Eckhart are sent to Nightmute, Alaska- the place where night does not speak- to unravel the disturbing murder of a local teenager. Dormer is being investigated by Internal Affairs, although the reason why is unclear. Hap has decided to rat him out, and tells him so, because he is afraid of losing his job. Dormer is a legendarily good cop and Hap assumes that IA will not be able to pin anything on him, but Dormer has been a cop a long time and knows that if you try hard enough, you can pin anything on anybody.
When they arrive in Nightmute Dormer is exhausted, but he soon learns that summer in Alaska is the time of the White Nights, and the sun does not set. He meets up with a young and inexperienced detective (Swank), and soon realise that the girl's murderer is a psychopath. Upon drawing the killer into the open, Dormer chases him into a fog bank, and, lost in the featureless light, he shoots the first form to come up to him, which, shockingly, is actually his partner Hap. (Hap, which means "luck" is another rather ironic name). Realising that IA will convict him of his murder, he decides to cover up the accident, but he figured without the light of Nightmute. Soon, he finds himself unable to sleep, as he desperately searches for ways to block out the light streaming round the edges of his curtain like the searchlight of God. Suddenly he starts getting phone calls from the killer (Williams, excellent), who tells him that he saw him kill his partner. He wants to be let off, and another person found guilty in his place; after all, he never intended to kill the girl, and he is sure the detective will agree that everyone is allowed to make one mistake...

Soon Dormer is a man whose mind, body and soul are screaming. As day after day without sleep pushes him closer and closer to the edge, he must deal with the killer drawing him deeper into his game, acting like his evil muse, while the light streaming through the cracks in his window eats at his conscience. And meanwhile, unexpectedly, the inexperienced detective is beginning to suspect him.
"Insomnia" is an extremely taught and precise thriller, which is to be expected from the man who gave us Memento. It is exceptionally paced and the photography, so important when one of your characters is light itself, is excellent. It's biggest debit, I think, is the performance by Pacino, who, though he does a great job capturing the mannerisms of a man gradually going through nervous collapse, is not very good (Hasn't been for years really) at creating truly sympathetic characters. The audience is unable to look at him and say "What if that were me?" something that is necessary in a film about guilt and personal fear. Still, all in all, a very good suspenser