Intermission: Good, bad blur in Christopher Nolan's 'Insomnia'

"Insomnia"

Directed by: Christopher Nolan

Starring: Al Pacino, Hilary Swank, Robin Williams

Rated: R

"Good cops can't sleep because that missing piece of the puzzle keeps them awake. Bad cops can't sleep because of their conscience." These are the words of Los Angeles homicide detective Will Dormer, and they come back to haunt him.

I'm not a cop, but I do suffer from insomnia, and so I connected with Will, who doesn't sleep for a week in Christopher Nolan's reworking of "Insomnia," the Norwegian film noir from 1997.

Nolan directed "Memento," one of the best and most original films of the past few years.

Here he conveys much of the same emotional tension he used to great effect in that movie, while branching out to a wider, more mainstream audience.

"Insomnia" was playing in two houses at the Campbell 16, an honor usually bestowed only upon foregone blockbusters like "Spiderman" and that Star Wars "Clone" thing whose title I can't remember. (I guess the force just isn't with me, and I really don't care.)

I really had my doubts when I first saw the previews. It didn't seem to me there would be enough scenery for both Al Pacino and Robin Williams in the same movie.

Happily, they are both fairly restrained in their roles.

Will Dormer may be Pacino's finest character since Michael Corleone in the "Godfather" series.

Will and his partner Hap (Martin Donovan) are detectives from Los Angeles, assigned to a murder case in Alaska.

The sub-plot is that internal affairs is conducting an investigation on the detectives' division and Hap is getting ready to cut a deal.

Will thinks this is a bad idea, but his record is clean. It's clean as far as Hap knows, anyway.

It's summer in Alaska, and the sun never really sets. This immediately causes problems for Will, who finds he can't sleep.

The constant daylight also serves as a metaphor for things happening in the detective's life.

Will and Hap team up with the local Alaskan cops to try and find who murdered a high school girl and left her body at the city dump.

On the team is a woman cop, Ellie Burr (Hilary Swank), who is a devotee of Will's. She's read all of his cases and even did a thesis on them when she was in cop school. This proves to be a mixed blessing for Will. He's a detective who believes in looking for all the little things when he's on a case, and when Burr begins doing so, she finds some disturbing facts.

Will discovers a key piece of evidence forgotten by the murderer and sets up a great sting operation.

The suspect shows up, and the cops begin a chase. The only problem is the dense fog surrounding the crime scene. Will fires a shot at what he believes to be the suspect, but it turns out to be his partner, Hap.

Knowing this will look bad in the internal affairs investigation, and that no one else saw what happened, Will creates a scenario in which the murder suspect is the one who shot and killed Hap.

There's one major flaw here: The guy they were chasing actually witnessed what happened and subsequently contacts Will.

From here the film gets into the classic noir style, with the lines between the good and bad becoming increasingly blurred.

Will blames his insomnia on the constant light, but even after taping over the windows in his hotel room, he still can't sleep. There's a different kind of light shining on him, and it's making him crazy.

Robin Williams plays Walter Finch, an author who is the prime suspect in the murder investigation. He, too, has trouble sleeping in Alaska. After witnessing Will's "accident," he calls Will to propose a deal that will let them both escape unscathed.

"Insomnia" is a great psychological drama; a cop thriller that goes well beyond the typical action picture. Director Nolan has kept audiences on edge before in his other films and does so again here, getting great performances out of his actors and using subtle metaphor.

As good as this version is, I can only imagine the original "Insomnia" is a great film as well.

But the video places around Springfield seem to be in short supply of Norwegian offerings.

(Jim Wunderle works at Associated Video Producers and is a Springfield free-lance writer and musician.)