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This crime thriller directed by Christopher Nolan of Memento renown (see Kristin's review) was a bit of a disappointment. That’s not to say the acting was bad. Al Pacino and Robin Williams both did bang-up jobs with their characters, and Hillary swank was no slouch either.
So what was the problem? I think there may have just been too much going on at once. Multiple plots are put to work in Insomnia, and although the characters are intertwined in some interesting ways, their motivations aren’t quite as convincing as they need to be for the movie to really click.
Here’s a quick run-through (minus vital information that could ruin any surprises). See if you can spot the problem. Robin Williams plays Walter Finch, and everyone who’s seen the commercial knows he’s the bad guy. Well, he’s under investigation by Al Pacino’s character Will Dormer. Dormer has his own problems within the police department back at home. Take these problems, throw in a plot twist, and add a pinch of Hillary Swank as Ellie Burr. Now you’ve got Burr investigating the plot twist which involves Dormer. Throw in a second plot twist regarding Finch. Then tangle up Finch and Dormer and refrigerate. By the end, you’re juggling Finch’s crime, Dormer’s problems, and Burr’s investigation. Which story line should you try to follow? Admittedly, they all tie together, but the knots are rather loose. The characters’ motivations are weak, and Dormer should have enough common sense to avoid the first plot twist. Without the first twist, the rest of the film unravels.
There’s also an all-too-convenient discovery that spoils the believability of Burr’s investigation, and too many things aren’t made clear enough in the heat of action. If a character mentions he has a .45-caliber gun, then someone else finds a gun later, how am I supposed to know if the found gun was the .45 or not? I don’t know what a .45 looks like.
The real problem appears to be in the script. In trying to catch audiences off-guard with something, the writers have thrown too much into the stew. It’s as if they weren’t sure one plot would do the trick, so they threw in a couple of contingency plots -- just in case.
Don’t expect any of Memento’s story-advancing editing in this one, either. The camera angles, scene transitions, and jolting flashes just aren’t there. Oddly, that might have provided a great advantage, given that insomnia is an affliction that can distort reality. There are a couple of minor attempts, but they’re too little, and they come too late.
Make what you will of all this, but don’t anticipate Insomnia providing the same level of fulfillment Memento did. The characters are all there. The problem is that they’re also over here and over there, and, somewhere in the middle, you’re supposed to be amazed.
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