Insomnia: Hard to stay awake

                I looked at this movie’s description and thought to myself, “How could this go wrong?”  An all-star cast of three Oscar-winners join up with Christopher Nolan to make a movie.  Luckily, Insomnia doesn’t go very wrong.  If you want a usual Chris Nolan mindfreak, you won’t find it here, but Insomnia is still a gripping mystery.

                Insomnia is the story of two Los Angeles cops who are sent to Alaska to find the killer of a teenage girl.  But when Will Dormer (Al Pacino) has something go wrong with his partner, Will begins to lose sleep.  Hilary Swank helps Dormer on their case as rookie cop Ellie Burr, as Robin Williams tags along as, well, a spoiler.  This is a mystery and I’d rather not give away too much of the plot.

                Al Pacino is an undeniably great actor and it is shown quite well through this movie.  As every new piece of evidence is unfolded and every new lead is figured out, the viewer can tell that Pacino stays in character nicely.  He seems to have that very normal feel to him.  Pacino acts how just about anyone in that situation would act, but he does so in an unnatural situation, and that’s what makes him great.

                Hilary Swank does a good job as the eager newbie.  The genuine kindness in her eyes fades as the plot gets thicker and it’s a nice change from similar faces in every scene.  It’s very difficult to talk about Robin Williams’ character, but he does a great job in it.  I’m not used to seeing Williams do a drama, but it seems to work very nicely for him.

                The writing in this movie is just about the only thing I have a problem with.  The screenplay is largely based off of an extremely similar Sweedish movie of the same name.  When I say extremely, I mean they’re almost exact copies.  The rest was up to screenwriter Hillary Seitz, whose only other credit is admittedly terrible Eagle Eye.  The writing isn’t bad per se, but the story seemed to be one big lag with a pickup in the last five minutes.  I know mysteries are meant to be slow, but this was bordering on unbearable.  I was kept in by wanting to know the ending and how it plays out.  I have to admit, the movie definitely kept me hooked.

                Director Christopher Nolan has great direction as usual.  I recently saw Memento and the style doesn’t seem to change that much.  That’s not necessarily a bad thing, Memento was very well directed, but I do wish that there was a slight change in style from Nolan’s other movies.

                Insomnia is a gripping mystery that will keep you wanting it to end, but without skipping the details.  Two hours is a long time these days and slow mysteries aren’t usually my favorite, but Insomnia kept my attention with smart direction, an intriguing story, and great acting, especially by Pacino.  7.5/10