![]() ![]() Upon arriving at the station, Dormer, Burr, and Eckhart look over the body of 17 year old Kay Connell, who they were sent from Los Angelas to assist the local police in their investigation at the request of an old friend of Dormer's police Chief Nyback. Upon leaving the plane they are met by beaming young detective Ellie Burr who is a self-confessed fan of Dormer's earlier investigations and work, much to Eckhart's obvious annoyance. Weary detective Will Dormer is seen seated in a charter plane arriving in a small town called Nightmute, Alaska alongside his younger partner, Detective Happy Eckhart. Here, as in Memento, the director shows how film bright can be as dramatic, oppressive and revealing as film noir.The film begins with an opening title and credits showing shots of white fabric of a person's clothes being crimsoned with someone's blood purposely applied by an unseen figure in a flashback to an earlier event interlaced with overhead shots of the Alaskan frontier. “There are moments in Insomnia when the sameness of the emotional landscape becomes as wearying as the constant sunshine, but that isn’t a damning flaw, and in any case it was probably Nolan’s intention. As for Nolan, whose Memento was one of the only two five-cup films of last year, I never really saw his thumbprint on this.” Need Coffee Williams is even good and cannily cast Swank…could have been anybody, really, there’s not much for her to do. Pacino is Pacino, and you can’t do anything about him–he’s always good. “It’s truly your standard thriller fare, which is certainly beneath the talents assigned to it. ![]() Also, I felt that the performances in the new version were much better, especially in the case of the Dormer character (the character is named Jonas Engström in the original.) Pacino actually makes it look like he has been up for days and just isn’t thinking straight.” Entertain Your Brain! “I felt the Nolan version explored the motivation behind the crimes and the cover-ups much further than the original. It perfectly complements Nolan’s slow and steady pacing and the foggy mountain vistas and overcast sunlit visuals.” Daily Film Dose “Nolan’s frequent musical collaborator other than Hans Zimmer is David Julyan, who composes a moody score not unlike his work on Memento and The Prestige, and perhaps influenced by the atmospheric scores of Howard Shore. Finch may possess Williams’s trademark eccentric smile and nervous voice but, underneath the surface, he’s an empty shell who views human beings as being as disposable as the characters in his paperback novels. In Insomnia (and, that same year, in One Hour Photo), Robin Williams reveals inner darkness that he rarely showed before or after. When he was shouting out a thousand words a minute and rapidly switching from one character to the next, it always seemed as if it was all a technique to keep anyone from figuring out who he really was. Even in comedic roles, there was a transparent but very solid wall between Williams the audience. To me, Robin Williams’s screen presence always carried hints of narcissism and self-destruction. He’s a writer and, in a stroke of brilliance, he’s played by none other than Robin Williams. Who is the murderer? His name is Walter Finch. And now, he’s calling Dormer and cruelly taunting him. Add to that, the murderer knows that Dormer shot Eckhart. Because of the midnight sun, the night never falls in Alaska and, tortured by guilt, Dormer cannot sleep. Working with a local detective (Hilary Swank), Dormer tries to solve the Alaska murder, with the knowledge that, once he does, he’ll have to return to Los Angeles and he’ll probably be indicted. He lies and says that the murderer shot Eckhart. Was it an accident or did Dormer intentionally shoot his partner? Not even Dormer seems to know for sure. When the fog clear, Dormer discovers that he’s killed Eckhart. While pursuing the suspected murderer through the Alaskan fog, Dormer fires his gun. He’s being investigated by Internal Affairs and, shortly after they arrive in Alaska, Eckhart admits that he’s been given immunity as part of a deal to testify against Dormer. He’s burned out and he’s plagued by rumours that, in the past, he was a crooked cop. Dormer has issues that go far beyond anything happening in Alaska.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |