Insomnia [2002]

Product Details

Director : Christopher Nolan
Actor : Al Pacino, Robin Williams, Martin Donovan (II), Oliver 'Ole' Zemen, Hilary Swank
Format : PAL
Aspect Ratio : 2.35:1
Binding : DVD
EAN : 5017188886963
Number of Discs : 1
Product Group : DVD
Region Code : 2
Release Date : 2003-07-07
Running Time : 118minutes
Studio : Buena Vista Home Entertainment

ASIN : B00006AGHD

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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.co.uk Review

A fairly close remake of an outstanding Norwegian movie of the same name, Insomnia is director Christopher Nolan's follow-up to his breakthrough movie Memento. It's very much the sort of project that seems designed to be a stepping-stone from independent glory to the Hollywood A-list status. It has the right subject matter, stars (Al Pacino, Robin Williams), supporting cast (Hilary Swank, Martin Donovan), an audience-friendly intellectual thriller format and enough bizarre cinematic ideas to allow for directorial bravura.

Evading the heat of an Internal Affairs investigation, Los Angeles hotshot homicide cop Dormer (Pacino) flies north to Alaska to dig into the murder of a local girl--but a botched trap for the killer leads to a foggy shoot-out that goes wrong. This leads to an alliance between the cop and the killer, who offers Dorma a nasty bargain. Making the situation worse is the fact that Dormer can't sleep, his body clock thrown off by the 24-hour thin sunlight of the town of Nightmute, which affords Pacino a chance to crawl deeply inside a flawed hero on the point of cracking up. There's one terrific chase scene, with two clumsy middle-aged guys, leading to an intense and memorable peril. It slightly over-eggs the original story, with a Hollywooden tinge, but it's still compelling, grown-up drama. --Kim Newman

On the DVD: Insomnia offers a wealth of DVD special features, most of which can be found inside the "Production Diaries", including a splendid making-of featurette filled with great cinematography and a haunting soundtrack. There is also an interesting documentary short on insomnia the condition, relating the problems sleep deprivation can cause. The commentaries take a new angle by asking relevant cast and crew members to comment on a scene specific to them rather than listening to the whole film with a commentary, which is refreshing and a concise way of providing the information. --Nikki Disney

Customer Reviews

Gripping thriller (2008-06-25)

Insomnia is a good thriller thats worth buying for many reasons:Its a top notch cast. Al Pacino gives one of his his finest late performances as the detective who can't sleep investigating a murder. Robin Williams matches Pacino in his second great role that year (see One Hour Photo for the other), and the always good Hilary Swank gives a very good performance supporting the two main leads.The director is Christopher Nolan (Memento, Batman Begins, The Prestige), who seems to have a natural talent for these type of films. He does a fine job with the actors as well as capturing the sometimes haunting nature of the Alaskan landscape. Nolan is helped by a taught script, and with a running time of less than 2 hours, you will find it difficult to sleep through. I haven't seen the original 1997 version of this film. From what I've heard its the better of the two, which means it must be very good. However for a mainstream Hollywood movie this remake is remarkably restrained and makes compulsive viewing.

excellent (2008-06-07)

great twisting thriller with al pacino and robin williams giving excellent performances and are well supported by hillary swank.this is a great thriller worth watching

My cup of tea (2008-03-10)

One of my favourite movies of all times. Think I watched it about 4-5 times already in the last 15 months. Stunning, remote, damp Alaska not being the last reason why it is a fascinating film. A great plot, well casted, in the right settings.Can't say much more, except that I am awaiting the original version for rental shortly. I'm curious which one I'd prefer in the end.

Kept me awake anyway (2007-02-27)

This film really only takes off when Robin Williams becomes part of it. He puts in another very good performance alongside a decent enough effort from Al Pacino. Pacino plays Will Dormer a very tired cop with Internal Affairs looking too closely into his work. Sent to a remote town in Alaska to assist in a murder of a school girl, Dorma and his partner are sent to investigate. Partly to escape the examination back home. Riddled with guilt Dorma is already lacking sleep. In Alaska things don't get much better as things get more and more on top of him Dormer's beliefs and views become blurred. Eventually leading him to make choices he knows are wrong he forgets who he is. Will he make the right all his wrongs? Will Robin Williams (Walter Finch) reveal what he knows? Its a decent enough film but perhaps Williams should have played a greater part in proceedings. I like it nevertheless.

Al Pacino excels but Christopher Nolan stumbles (2006-11-03)

Christopher Nolan's 2002 remake of Insomina is sadly his weakest film in an otherwise impressive filmography. The main problem is the relentless softening and sentimentalising of the material: Pacino's cop is much more sociable and wise rather than the Skaarsgard's morally empty cold fish, and is consequently much less interesting. Nolan keeps Pacino's shouty moments to a minimum and he does a much more impressive job of the sleep deprivation, but the audience-friendly characterization results in a clich?d stereotype on a predictable journey to inevitable redemption. Sadly, the dilution doesn't end with Pacino but runs throughout the film. In this version - for those familiar with the original - the dog is already dead to avoid anything that might alienate us from the hero, the women are mostly father confessor figures, the hotel receptionist IS polite to the shot man, there's no kitten scene, Hilary Swank is saddled with a horrible "I know you're a good cop even if you don't" scene that lacks the cold condemnation and loss of trust of the original's finale and, most damagingly, it's strongly implied that the girl's murder was not accidental, which draws a line between cop and killer. A couple of key scenes are badly directed, most notably the shooting in the fog that highlights Nolan's problems with action scenes (although there is one good chase over logs in the river). There are, however, strong points, mostly once Robin Williams enters the scene. The film does briefly address the complicity between cop and killer and takes interesting detours from the original, but it's still a film that works for a couple of reels at a time then goes off the boil for another couple of reels before staging another recovery.

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