Volume 2, No. 27 May 31, 2002
Losing sleep over ‘Insomnia’ A Review By Beth E. Concepción Al Pacino is the perfect actor to play a smart, tough, flawed detective in "Insomnia." Add that his character can’t sleep, and you have a very interesting role. Pacino plays Los Angeles police detective Will Dormer who is sent to Alaska — land of the midnight sun (the cause of Dormer’s insomnia) — with his partner Hap Eckhart (Martin Donovan) to capture the killer of a teen-age girl. Dormer and Eckhart have their own troubles back in L.A. as the internal affairs department is determined to ensnare Dormer, with Eckhart’s help. One of the cops on the local case is Ellie Burr, played by Hilary Swank. Burr is intelligent, but naïve, and is in awe of Dormer’s reputation and experience. That golden retriever-ish quality makes her miss certain important things, which I can’t give away. Directed by Christopher Nolan, who also directed the ground-breaking "Memento," "Insomnia" is a remake of a 1998 Norwegian film of the same name made by Erik Skjoldbjaerg. Though every actor holds his own, it is, of course, Pacino who carries the movie. With each moment without sleep, his eyes get puffier, his face more haggard, his actions more muddy and unfocused. The struggle with sleeplessness and its effects is something to which everyone can relate, and provides a foundation for sympathy for Dormer. Movies that show truly human characters, warts and all, are rare. It is hard to identify the "bad guy" in "Insomnia" because almost every character has issues; as in real life, there is good and bad in everyone. So, if you don’t agree with some choices a character makes, it is hard to identify with that person (just as in real life). There is the potential for the audience to be disconnected. Yet, that’s why this movie is so interesting; it provokes thought about consequences and it is intellectually entertaining. One could lose sleep just thinking about cause and effect.
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