Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #6260 in DVD
• Released on: 2003-07-07
• Rating: Suitable for 15 years and over
• Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: PAL
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: English, Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, Finnish
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 118 minutes

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

Special Features
Commentary with Director Christopher Nolan
Commentary with Cast & Crew
180 degrees: A conversation with Christopher Nolan and Al Pacino
Day & Night: The making of Insomnia
In the Fog: with Wally Pfister
In the Fog: with Nathan Crawley
Eyes Wide Open featurette
Stills gallery
Cinematography & Production Design featurettes
And much more

Widescreen 2.35:1
Dolby Digital 5.1 English, French
Subtitles: English, English for the hearing impaired, French, Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, Finnish, Dutch

Synopsis
In a remote Alaskan town called Nightmute, the murder of a teenage girl has shocked the tight-knit community. The Los Angeles Police Department sends two of its cops--both under investigation by Internal Affairs--to try to solve the crime in Christopher Nolan's film based on Erik Skjoldbjaerg's 1997 Norwegian version starring Stellan Skarsgard. The experienced, weathered Will Dormer (Al Pacino) has nothing in life except for the police force; his younger partner Hap (Martin Donovan) has a family to support and is willing to turn state's evidence to protect them. Local cop Ellie Burr (Hilary Swank) is excited to work with her hero Dormer--until she starts uncovering some questionable situations. It isn't long before Dormer finds the murderer--reclusive writer Walter Finch, played with subtle nuance by Robin Williams--but Finch knows a secret that could bring Dormer down. Director Nolan, who stunned audiences with 2001's inventive MEMENTO, here crafts an atmospheric psychological thriller bathed in whites and grays. The acting is uniformly excellent, especially Pacino's performance as a cop on the edge and Williams' soft-spoken, low-rent crime novelist. Because it never gets dark in Alaska at this time of year, Dormer (a play off the Spanish word "dormir," which means "to sleep") is unable to fall asleep, light always streaming into his hotel room--watching him slowly unravel is one of the film's many treats.

Customer Reviews

Gripping thriller
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
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
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.