01/05/2003 Entry:
"Insomnia - Christopher Nolan (2002)"

I had been waiting FOREVER to see this, I can't believe I missed it when it came out. A tight, well-executed thriller from Christopher Nolan, the director of Memento. The story and performances are pretty straightforward and basic. Only Pacino brings any real life to his role, which should come easy since he's been playing this role for decades. Robin Williams is also good, even making you forget that he's Robin Williams for a while. It is really the technical craft of Nolan and his team which makes this rise above being a straightforward thriller.

Insomnia was mostly filmed in British Columbia, and the landscapes are beautiful. Credit goes to Nolan's DP Wally Pfister, for creating some beautiful lighting effects. Pfister also lensed Memento, and before that appears to have been active in the Cinemax late night industry. Pfister does some really nice work using lighting to highlight Pacino's lack of sleep. In several sections, Pacino will be in what seems to be a normally lit room and then some light will come in totally blazing. It is a very cool and effective effect. There are also a lot of cool scenes using extremely tight shots with narrow focus to really stress the concentration of someone on a specific spot.

Nolan really makes a lot of this shine. There are several very well done scenes. First, a scene wherein Robin Williams describes his murder to Pacino over the phone. Through the use of very brief cutins with almost no sound (and absolutely no music) you can see Williams' character relive his murder and Pacino's character visualize it. This devicce is used on many occasions by Nolan to visualize the thoughts flashing through a character's mind. It is extremely effective, and in the commentary Nolan says he used it as a replacement for voiceover, and it works really well. The other really noteworthy scene is when Pacino is chasing Williams over a swiftly moving current of logs, and Pacino falls in and is caught underneath them. You can feel the tenseness as he tries to get out. You know he will escape, but the effective use of sound, light and editing make you really feel the panic in the scene. This is what good thrillers do and it is what makes this stand out in a way that films like Minority Report and Signs didn't. Oh, a final cool scene is the chase in the fog. It is really weird watching a chase where the two can't really see each other. You find yourself moving your head around trying to get a better view.

I felt like there were a lot of other films coming up in my mind as I watched this. Williams on the phone with Pacino made me think of Kevin Spacey in Seven. I was also reminded of Seven during their chase from Williams' apartment. This chase is extremely similar - cop walked in on by killer, chase taking place with the killer just sort of in the distance and unidentifiable. The end reminded me a lot of Silence Of The Lambs - cop going for what is really considered a cleanup assignment, meets killer and finds life in danger. I'm not saying they were ripped off (Nolan didn't even write the movie, its based on a Norwegian film which I have here but haven't watched) just that these other films occured to me as I watched.

There are quite a few bonus things on the DVD. I started going through them, but they were all pretty standard blah things. The deleted scene is nice, but pretty short. There are some actor and crew commentaries which only play over certain scenes, which was actually kind of nice since you don't get stuck sitting through long stretches of silence - the film just jumps from scene to scene as appropriate. Of these only Pfister's short three or four scenes are at all noteworthy. He mentions a spot where they added a puddle in order to capture a reflection, which for some reason just seemed really cool. It really did add a lot to the scene once I tried to picture it gone.

Nolan does a full-film commentary which is very cool. He talks over the whole film but presents it in the order it was shot rather than in the order it plays out in the film. It works well in a lot of ways. First it takes you out of the film and allows you to jsut concentrate on the scenes and how they were made, which is what I think a great commentary should do anyways. You also start noticing logistical things. Like you spend two weeks on a single set, then leave and don't come back. I always knew this but it was still interesting to see. Then you notcie that when an actor like Maura Tierney is only in a small portion of the film, you shoot all those scenes together. That is cool too. Again, its not like its news to me, its just stuff you notice. You also notice how some days really not a lot of screen time gets shot. The final thing I realized is that Pacino's performance is a lot more praise-worthy when you realize how he has to jump in and out of his character. Here he has no sleep for one day, then the next day he's supposed to have no sleep for five days, then the next for two days. He really has to try and create a straight line of descent for his character when there isn't one. It is pretty impressive.

Nolan's commentary is pretty good too, especially in the first half. He brings forth a raft of details about how he made certain filming decisions, how he made shot choices, how he acheived certain effects with lighting and sound. It is a really great and interesting commentary, certainly one of the better ones I've ever seen. Frankly, the movie is good and certainly worth seeing, but I kind of fell like this is worth getting just for the commentary. I really liked it.

Replies: 2 comments

I watched both versions of Insomnia over the last few weeks. I'll be interested to see what you think of the Norwegian version. I thought both were excellent, but I think the Norwegian was just a touch better. As good as Pacino was, I was even more impressed by Stellan Skarsgard's portrayal of the character. It's interesting to see which scenes Nolan used almost exactly and which things he made subtle and not so subtle changes to. I think this was the first time I've seen a contemporary foreign suspense/thriller movie remade in the U.S. and done well. The Hollywood versions of the Vanishing and Nightwatch were pretty bad, but I haven't seen the Ring yet. Posted by chris @ 01/06/2003 12:35 AM CST

I must admit to preferring last year's big-budget version of INSOMNIA, if only because Nolan's technique was so deft. It's been a few years since I saw the original, but I remember agreeing with Mike D'Angelo's review (http://www.panix.com/~dangelo/col29.html#inso.html) at the time. Posted by Scott B. @ 01/07/2003 02:34 PM CST