Murder and sunlight

Rating: 5/10 (24 August 2014)

Insomnia is a remake of a Norwegian thriller which features the trio of Oscar winners Al Pacino, Robin Williams and Hilary Swank.
However this is Pacino's film. He plays seasoned LA Detective Will Dormer arriving at rural Alaska somewhere north of the Arctic Circle in the height of summer when it does not get dark to solve the murder of a teenage girl. Back in LA he is under investigation by Internal Affairs and his partner, who arrives with him to Alaska (Martin Donovan) is looking like that he will buckle under pressure.
While in pursuit of the possible killer in heavy fog, Dormer ends up shooting dead his partner. Was it deliberate or an accident?
Dormer now has to cover up his tracks to show that the suspect shot his partner but Robin Williams who plays crime writer Walter Finch claims to have seen what Pacino did to his partner and there begins a game of cat and mouse. Finch played in a sinister but restrained manner by Williams is cold and calculating exploiting the vulnerable Dormer who is confused, tired and sleep deprived because of the lack of darkness. Finch offers Dormer a deal to frame the teenage girl's boyfriend in exchange for his silence as to what happened to his partner.
Swank plays a young police investigator at first excited to be working with Dormer and then has to investigate his partner's killing.
This was Christopher Nolan's first major Hollywood film and he was entrusted with three academy winning actors. Williams gives an understated performance, Swank provides warmth and steely determination but it is Pacino who is the centre as he looks to wrest control while staying up for days without sleep and sparring with Williams.
However the film with its rural Alaskan vibe does not really fire on all cylinders. I expected Nolan to gives us a film that is slightly offbeat and maybe a touch surreal.
Swank looks wasted, its a role any competent actress can perform. It actually lacks chills and thrills.