Rating: 
Summary: Great Job by Pacino/Williams
Review: Great job by Al Pacino and also Robin Williams. They play
off of each other and some of the other town folks well.
Let's have more of this duo, although I don't know if we
want to see Williams in this kind of role too often.
Maybe blend in with his super radio dj in "Good Morning
Vietnam." As a radio person, I use his performance there
as my early morning drive-time standard.Anyway, check out this film ---fine script, super acting and
the wonders of the Alaskan summer, and small town life.
However, as a resident of Arctic Alaska, I found the town in Insomnia to be quite civilized and rather urbane, compared with
some of the real Alaskan bush communities. The local restaurant
and its menu were almost Seattle-like, not Alaska bush. And it is fairly easy to sleep in the midnight sun, despite Pacino's aversion to sunlight at midnight and beyond. The
big trick is to keep going in the winter when the sun
stays below the horizon for several months. Let's see a sequel with that kind
of backdrop! If you are from outside of Alaska, check out the film and
then come on up and experience this last frontier for yourself.
Enjoy, and bring some aluminum foil in the summer if you need
to shut out sunshine coming through your window through the
"night."
Rating: 
Summary: Nolan is a new noir master!
Review: Al Pacino ("Any Given Sunday") plays a cop summoned to the Alaskan town of Nightmute to track down a killer. The town is in a part of the world where daylight lasts for six months, and Pacino's trouble sleeping slowly begins to drive him mad. Featuring wonderful performances from Hilary Swank ("Boys Don't Cry"), Maura Tierny (TV's "ER") and the incredible Robin Williams ("Good Will Hunting"), this movie is not the mystery one would expect. You know from the outset that Williams is the killer, and the drama comes from Pachino's struggle to capture him, especially after his exhaustion causes him to make an unspeakable mistake. Williams is best known as a comedian, but when he takes on dramatic roles like this, you get to see how good an actor he really is. Director Christopher Nolan ("Memento") is becoming the master of a new breed of movies that aren't quite film noir but have enough in common with that genre to compare. And favorably, too. As in "Memento" he uses the trick of showing you only pieces of the puzzle in an odd order right up until the end, where it all comes together. Nolan has earned a spot on my slim list of filmmakers I'll give my theater admission price to no matter what. I'm glad Warner Bros actually gave us both a fullscreen AND a widescreen edition, rather than just a fullscreen like some studios have opted for lately... but I still don't get why anyone would watch fullscreen in this day and age. Get the widescreen. See the movie the way it was MEANT to be seen.
Rating:
Summary: Very solid 4 stars .
Review: Everybody was expecting a 10 stars hit from director Christopher Nolan in this film . As result - they was very dessapointed . I watched this film totally blank , without any expectations . As result - I loved it . No flashy scenes , no big chases . Just very solid and deep film . I gave it only 4 stars just because of the power of the director in it . You can feel how much power he has ... but holding back a little . This feeling of danger and exitment at same time . Friends ! He is about to explode ! Next one will be a killer .
I didn't say anything about what this film about just because it is so many very good reviews right behind me . I don't want to repeat them . But I can tell you which moment I loved the most ... the last one :
- Nobody needs to know ?!
-I just need to catch some sleep....
Rating:
Summary: A worthy remake
Review: Disoriented by sleeplessness and troubled by an Internal Affairs investigation that may destroy him, LA detective Will Dormer (Al Pacino) becomes involved with a murder investigation in a small Alaskan town and the machinations of a killer (Robin Williams). Directed by Christopher Nolan, who also made the excellent "Memento", this remake of a Norwegian thriller is much more than a pale rehash of a superior film, like most Hollywood remakes of foreign movies. Instead, it is a worthy reexamination of the source material. Many of the changes are typically American--the ambiguities in character motivation are removed and the ending is far more moralistic--yet I found it to be the equal of the original. Nolan preserves the sense of disorientation from the first film, and the interaction between cop and killer is intensified and deepened. Recommended.
Rating:
Summary: Dark light
Review: A homicide detective from L.A. is assigned to solve the murder of a teenaged girl in a coastal Alaskan town. Unaccustomed to the perpetual daylight in that part of the world, he is unable to sleep. His mental state begins to deteriorate and he finds himself drawn deeper and deeper into a web of his own making. As he is manipulated by the killer, he's forced to wonder if the two men have more than a little in common. Al Pacino, in the lead role, is a joy to watch as usual. I always find myself enjoying his performances, even in substandard films (which this isn't.) Robin Williams is surprisingly good; perhaps dramatic roles are his true calling (I've never found him funny.) Hilary Swank plays the local rookie who is teamed with Pacino's veteran character. Katharine Isabelle (GINGER SNAPS) appears in a smaller but significant role as the murdered girl's best friend. And one can't talk about this film without mentioning the beautiful location, which the director and cinematographer take full advantage of. This isn't your typical "police stalking a killer" story. We find out fairly early who the murderer is, and the protagonist even meets him face-to-face. But the action is more about the protagonist himself, and the issues surrounding him. Though there is information that is not revealed until the end, it is more a psychological drama than a murder mystery. The DVD contains a wealth of special features, including a technically-oriented director commentary (presented in shooting order), and select scene commentary from Swank and assorted production personnel. There is also a casual conversation between director Christopher Nolan and Pacino, and some behind the scenes featurettes. The most unusual is a short production featuring interviews with real life insomniacs as well as medical professionals. INSOMNIA is a worthy follow-up to MEMENTO. Just remember, when you have insomnia, you're never really asleep, and you're never really awake...
Rating: 
Summary: OUCH!
Review: OK.
Someone needs to tell Robin Williams that just because he's brilliant as a comedian, doesn't mean he should try everything else, too ... ?
If you're in mood to watch a movie of this style (serial killer, good cop, bad cop), please watch Summer of Sam! That was much more entertaining.
Rating:
Summary: Compare & Contrast.
Review: Insomnia will do no harm to the reputations of the people involved in its making. Chris Nolan continues to perfect his skills as a filmaker, Al Pacino gives us another great performance, Robin Williams manages the near super-human task of suppressing his Robin Williamsness (i.e. manic comic genius),and gives a thoughtful and spot-on character performance, and Hillary Swank does nicely in a supporting role. The thriller is taut and complex and takes place in a new and interesting setting. Too bad there was an original movie of Insomnia, that takes place in Norway, that has much of the same elements but also some great differences. If one has seen both, the comparisons & contrasts are impossible to avoid. Al Pacino gives a terrific performance as the bleary-eyed sleepless detective, but Stellan Skarsgard in the Norwegian version is no slouch at acting either. I won't go into detail on the changes and diversions in both films. I recommend that movie buffs see both, as they are different films, despite sharing relatively the same story. I find the European version is more enigmatic, not drawn in bold black and whites, and with a feeling of life's quixotic accidents. The central crime/cover-up by the detective is motiveless in the Norwegian version, in the American film there is an added subtext that either deepens or makes simpler the detective's actions, depending upon your point of view. The byplay between the murderer and the detective is more complex in the American, and more subtle and less defined in the European. Pacino is a man with troubles, Skarsgard is a troubled man. But finally, the big difference is in the ending. I was disappointed that the American version opted to end everything in a typically American fashion, with a bullet, and all strands wrapped up in a bow. The American film is inexorable and predestined, the Norwegian film more open to happenstance and accident. The European version leaves the end enigmatically unresolved. I won't say which is best. That, each viewer will have to decide for themselves. Both versions are well worth your interest.
Rating:
Summary: Superb sophmore effort
Review: Insomnia proves that Christopher Nolan, along with Steven Soderbergh, Paul Thomas Anderson, and David Lynch, is one of the few "auteur" directors in Hollywood. A movie that few directors would want to tackle, Insomnia is a dark psychological thriller set in a literal barren landscape of Alaska. Nothing is what it seems on the surface. Al Pacino is brilliant and reveals the complexity of his character in the role of a cop under investigation by internal affairs for misconduct sent to Alaska to help with a murder investigation. The cinematography is absolutely astounding. The bright visuals of the outside giving a feeling of boundless nothingness to the world while the dark, dank, closed interiors emphasize Pacino's mental state perfectly throughout the film. Although slightly more conventional than Memento, Nolan's neo-noir masterpiece, in Insomnia he has crafted a tight thriller emphasizing the atmosphere of dread that pervades the entire film. The film is somewhat slow at times, but since the film is intended to be a police-procedural it must show police work as what it is most of the time. It is a painstakingly slow process whereby detectives actually have to think and contemplate their next move. I believe Nolan also slows the film down to force the audience to process the information along with the police. This tone and style serves in direct contrast to the kinetic fast pace of Memento where one's perception of the character's and their motivations are changed after each scene so you've barely processed the information before that info has become void or altered. Obviously Nolan was attempting to put the audience into Leonard's head. The intention with Insomnia I believe was to make a more distanced picture talking about the fraily of the human condition.
Rating:
Summary: Heresy.
Review: Insomnia (Christopher Nolan, 2002) I hate to think it's true, but having now seen Chris Nolan's other two films, Following and Insomnia, I'm starting to think Memento--one of the finest films ever made--was a one-shot deal. Insomnia, based on Erik Skoldbjaerg's brilliant 1997 film starring Stellan Skarsjard (of Good Will Hunting and The Glass House). Nolan's version'-executive-produced by professional remake mangler Steven Soderbergh, who should be boiled in his own juices for what he did to Solaris'-puts an on-the-edge Al Pacino in Skarsjard's role, and Pacino is the best thing about this movie hands-down. It's the first time since Dog Day Afternoon that he's played a character who's this unhinged both in his head and by the events around him, and we, the viewing audience, have sorely missed Mr. Crazy Pacino, thankyouverymuch. Unfortunately, Pacino is not given nearly as much to work with as was Skarsjard, and what he is given is as anemic as a nineteenth-century hypochodriac prescribed a convalescence of a length to be determined. (If only someone had done the same for Nolan.) All of the motivation of Skarsjard's character has disappeared (some for the sake of'-ugh'-'streamlining,' and some because American audiences, according to Hollywood, would have a real problem seeing a character with some of Skarsjard's character's nastier qualities portrayed in anything like a positive light), all of the ambiguity of two key scenes (the shooting in the fog and the ride to the dump) have disappeared, a key scene showing the depth to which the detective has sunk is lessened in its intensity, and most heretically, the ending is destroyed, all of which lead to a film that, had it been made on its own, may have been watchable. As a remake, however, it pales, and greatly, in comparison to the brilliant force unleashed upon us by Erik Skjoldbaerg in 1997. **
Rating:
Summary: A disappointment
Review: I will try not to title the review with any references to sleep, or lack of it. Nor will I mention things like Al Pacino sleepwalking through his role. But it seems that this film was shot to make you have empathy with the lead character, a cop who has insomnia in a land where the sun never sets. Pacino does a credible job as a cop who really needs a good snooze, but all the pacing did for me was make me want to nap myself, and that's the problem. The disappointment is that I was looking forward to the movie, especially the interaction with the killer. This is not the first movie that Al Pacino plays a cop who verbally confronts the bad guy before the inevitable violent end. He did it in "Heat" with Robert DiNiro, and in that picture there was blazing chemistry. Once again, maybe it's the sleep thing, but I really think the whole insomnia issue prevents any real electricity from happening. I would have liked to have seen the movie redone without the whole lack of sleep thing. It drains the energy from the film. Robin Williams has shown he's a good dramatic actor, and can make a great villain, but let's try it again some time with Pacino in something different.
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