Stars: Al Pacino, Robin Williams, Hilary Swank, Martin Donovan, Maura Tierney, Nicky Katt, Paul Dooley, Jonathan Jackson

Director: Christopher Nolan

Summary: LAPD detective, Will Dormer, hunts down the person responsible for the gruesome murder of a 17 year old girl.

In a remote Alaskan town called Nightmute, the murder of a teenage girl has shocked the tight-knit community. The Los Angeles Police Department sends two of its cops--both under investigation by Internal Affairs--to try to solve the crime in Christopher Nolan's film based on Erik Skjoldbjaerg's 1997 Norwegian version starring Stellan Skarsgard. The experienced, weathered Will Dormer (Al Pacino) has nothing in life except for the police force; his younger partner Hap (Martin Donovan) has a family to support and is willing to turn state's evidence to protect them. Local cop Ellie Burr (Hilary Swank) is excited to work with her hero Dormer--until she starts uncovering some questionable situations. It isn't long before Dormer finds the murderer--reclusive writer Walter Finch, played with subtle nuance by Robin Williams--but Finch knows a secret that could bring Dormer down. Director Nolan, who stunned audiences with 2001's inventive MEMENTO, here crafts an atmospheric psychological thriller bathed in whites and grays. The acting is uniformly excellent, especially Pacino's performance as a cop on the edge and Williams' soft-spoken, low-rent crime novelist. Because it never gets dark in Alaska at this time of year, Dormer (a play off the Spanish word "dormir," which means "to sleep") is unable to fall asleep, light always streaming into his hotel room--watching him slowly unravel is one of the film's many treats.

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A fairly close remake of an outstanding Norwegian movie of the same name, Insomniais director Christopher Nolan's follow-up to his breakthrough movie Memento. It's very much the sort of project that seems designed to be a stepping-stone from independent glory to the Hollywood A-list status. It has the right subject matter, stars (Al Pacino, Robin Williams), supporting cast (Hilary Swank, Martin Donovan), an audience-friendly intellectual thriller format and enough bizarre cinematic ideas to allow for directorial bravura.

Evading the heat of an Internal Affairs investigation, Los Angeles hotshot homicide cop Dormer (Pacino) flies north to Alaska to dig into the murder of a local girl--but a botched trap for the killer leads to a foggy shoot-out that goes wrong. This leads to an alliance between the cop and the killer, who offers Dorma a nasty bargain. Making the situation worse is the fact that Dormer can't sleep, his body clock thrown off by the 24-hour thin sunlight of the town of Nightmute, which affords Pacino a chance to crawl deeply inside a flawed hero on the point of cracking up. There's one terrific chase scene, with two clumsy middle-aged guys, leading to an intense and memorable peril. It slightly over-eggs the original story, with a Hollywooden tinge, but it's still compelling, grown-up drama. --Kim Newman

On the DVD:Insomniaoffers a wealth of DVD special features, most of which can be found inside the "Production Diaries", including a splendid making-of featurette filled with great cinematography and a haunting soundtrack. There is also an interesting documentary short on insomnia the condition, relating the problems sleep deprivation can cause. The commentaries take a new angle by asking relevant cast and crew members to comment on a scene specific to them rather than listening to the whole film with a commentary, which is refreshing and a concise way of providing the information. --Nikki Disney

Main Language:	English
Region:	Region 2
Special Features:	Deleted Scene, Production Interview - 1. 180 DEGREES: A Conversation with Christopher Nolan and Al Pacino, Audio Commentaries - 1. Christopher Nolan - Director, 2. Hilary Swank - Star, Making-of - 1. DAY FOR NIGHT: Making of INSOMNIA, Featurette - 1. IN THE FO
Year:	2002
Release Date:	July 7, 2003
Runtime:	118 minutes
Certification:
Catalogue Number:	B E D 888696
Keywords:	General, Thriller, Insomnia
Genre:	Thriller