a review by Jeffrey Overstreet
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With Insomnia, Christopher Nolan proves he’s a formidable talent.
He takes a solid foreign thriller and does something almost unheard of in the embarrassing tradition of American re-makes-he actually improves upon the original.
Here, he draws wonderful performances out of great actors.
And in fact, he pulls off a feat that many directors have failed to accomplish… he restrains Robin Williams’ familiar, wacky personality and gives us the actor’s strongest, most disciplined and finely crafted performance since Awakenings.
I’ll admit, I thought Memento was an excellent movie, but I thought that its success depended largely on its clever reverse-storytelling gimmicks. I wondered if Nolan would be able to make engaging linear movies as well. I’m not wondering anymore.
I expect Insomnia will be on a lot of critics’ fave lists by the end of the year. It may well be on mine. While I can’t give Nolan all of the credit for making this movie work (it’s a re-make), he’s certainly done himself proud. I much prefer Nolan’s Insomnia to its 1997 original. He is much more interested in exploring the tough questions about morality and justice that underly the story.
Just as the “hero” of Memento seems to be a good guy trying to track down a bad guy, Will Dormer (Pacino) looks like a good cop trying to hunt down a clever serial killer. But the farther he goes in the investigation, the more we learn about his own flaws, his own vulnerability, and the likelihood that he himself might be capable of a crime. What makes it even more interesting is that he is realizing the same things about himself. As we near the end, we’re as supicious of Dormer’s virtue as were were of Memento’s Leonard.
Dormer and his partner Hap (the always fantastic Martin Donovan) fly to Nightmute, a small Alaskan town with name that makes it the perfect place for a murder-case shrouded in secrecy. They’re on the track of a killer who killed a high school girl and then calmly, meticulously cleaned up her corpse. The local cops are suspicious of big city guns coming into their familiar territory and telling them what to do.
But Dormer’s a professional with an impressive reputation. Never mind that back home there is an investigation into the Department. Dormer wants to do a good job and go home. He’s far more concerned about how being bad-mouthed in L.A. than catching a killer in the frozen wilderness. While he claims that there is nothing lamentable in his record, he knows that every cop’s integrity is at risk if the lights get turned up bright enough. He wants to avoid embarrassment and disgrace, so he’s on pins and needles, worried about what Hap will say about him to his superiors. Their relationship is tense and troubled.
It does not go well for Dormer and Hap. Things get messy quickly. As soon as they pick up the trail of the killer, another dead body shows up. And this time, Dormer realizes that the other cops might interpret that he made a mistake, throwing the investigation off track and bearing some responsibility for this second death.
He’s especially worried about Ellie (Hilary Swank.) She’s a local rookie cop who has been studying law and admires Dormer’s impressive career. Her idealism makes her a likeable companion on the case, making Dormer smile as he remembers back when he was so naive and innocent.
But as Ellie insists on finding the truth about each and every situation, Dormer gets nervous. Her intense speculation could cast suspicion on him. Perhaps he should throw her off the scent of anything that could make him look bad. He knows that if his colleagues interpret events a certain way, his reputation of lifelong service will be destroyed and that all of the criminals he has been trying to put behind bars will be set free to perform more crime. What’s a little ‘fudging of the details’ going to hurt, if it keeps crooks behind bars and keeps the investigation on track?
It’s the kind of sin that would be easy to commit, and most of the time a person could get away with it.
But this is where Insomnia towers above so many thrillers. It acknowledges the most dangerous man is the one who kills his conscience. The killer is obviously ignoring his own conscience. And now that Dormer is trying to ignore his own, he’s headed for trouble.
As Dormer moves forward in the investigation, he is troubled by the way the sun in Alaska never sets. He can’t sleep with so much light coming in the windows. Similarly, he is increasingly troubled by the way his conscience will not give him any peace. The sun’s fierce light and the cold pangs of guilt are inseparably linked, one of the brilliant achievements of Nolan and his cinematographer. As the film runs on, Pacino gives Dormer increasingly bleary eyes and an increasing tendency to stagger and sway.
In a scene late in the film, he voices his angst to an a attractive local bartender (Maura Tierney) and shows a softer side that few of his many great roles hav allowed him to reveal. Tierney isn’t bad either. I’ve always thought she should be a big screen actress, and she makes a great impression here.
Pacino’s age is making him more and more interesting; the deep lines in his face, his wild greying hair, and his dogged expression make him appear as though he might just disintegrate under the pressure he has brought upon himself. If the Academy members don’t forget about this movie, Pacino may well earn another Oscar nomination.
All of this is making Dormer more and more like the man he is chasing. Is Walter Finch (Robin Williams) really the killer? If so, why is he so calm, casual, and collected about everything? Williams makes Finch a frighteningly reasonable man, whose persistent questions about innocence and guilt will make many audience members wonder what they would do if given the opportunity to arrest this man. He’s likeable, he has a warm and winning smile, and his arguments make a twisted sort of sense.
Williams deserves a nomination as well. Nolan keeps his tendency for wildness in check. Finch remains quiet and calculating. Only once do we see a glimmer of something more dangerous in his face. During questioning, there’s a flash in his eyes that’s so brief you’ll miss it if you blink. It’s a chilling moment.
Ultimately, Nolan’s film asks the question: Do the ends justify the means? Dormer thinks so, and he’s willing to go to extremes to cover up the truth in order to bring about a result that is, clearly, good for the world. But what kind of world is that, where peace is bought with lies? And how can we expect to live with a clear conscience if we presume to judge criminals while we cover up our own misdeeds?
Yoda says in Return of the Jedi, “The moment you start down the dark path, forever will it dominate your destiny.” That’s not true. Criminals can be redeemed. God’s grace and forgiveness are available to us all. But that does not excuse us from the noble machinery of human justice. We should pay for our crimes, even if we learn from our mistakes. Dormer is learning that one little lie leads to another slightly larger lie. It’s a slippery slope, and he’s increasingly aware that if something doesn’t change he’s going to hit rock bottom.
This movie should be seen, discussed, and pondered more than once. Movies regularly sell us the lie that a hero is somebody willing to do anything to catch the bad guy. Most big screen heroes work in varying methods of vigilante justice. Many commit small crimes in order to stop those who commit big ones. And audiences cheer. But who’s to say that the criminals themselves weren’t trying to accomplish what they saw was good through unclean methods? Insomnia is a tragedy, but it tells the truth about the wages of sin. It’s one of the best American thrillers I’ve ever seen.