Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #6287 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

Robin Williams plays it straight
Rating Explanation
I watch and own a huge number of films and can sit through most
dross. My ratings are based on my personal response to films,not
any standard of quality. Therefore:

1 star : So awful I walked out/switched off/fell asleep
2 stars: I managed to watch all of it, but it was painful
3 stars: It's OK - quite good, but I probably wouldn't watch it again
4 stars: It's good and/or enjoyable. I could happily watch it again
5 stars: These are special. My desert island films

A truly excellent thriller.

A U.S. remake of a Norwegian film, it's roots show.
Tense, twitchy and enthralling.Fantastic performances, potent settings, great script and direction.

Pacino plays an L.A. cop hiding from his own guilt while investigating the death of a girl in Alaska.

Robin Williams is chillingly convincing as the manipulative bad man.

Will be in any serious film fan's collection.

Beautiful and Intelligent
What may seem to be another "cop hunts down crazed murderer" secnario, Insomnia has to be praised for its intelligent storyline and its intimate characters.

Al-Pacino plays an investigator from L.A. who travels to remote Alaska to find the murderer of a young girl. The movie takes as surprising turn when he puts his professional record above the job he has been sent out for. Robin Williams provides good support as the "killer" crafty blackmailer and is interesting to watch in a role you would never expect him to be in.

The film is a beauty to watch from the start and continues to provide brilliant visuals. Due to this the movie is never boring to watch but sits comfortably in front of your eyes.

If you don't want to watch another action flick but are after something that will make you use your mind as well as your eyes - Insomnia is the film to watch.

Great Performances All Round - Will Defnitely Keep You Up
I would never give Insomnia a definition - a thriller yet sunshine set, a cat-and-rat game yet also rat-jolts-cat, a cruelty murder line yet faded in the psycho confusion. Everything in Insomnia seemed to free out the stereotypes as it's supposed to be. Things of this kind can always be boring and pale if not for atmospheric direction and top-notch performances.

Starring three Oscar winners, Insomnia follows its artistic pacing without losing any commercial attraction. Al Pacino, a top favourite of mine, is prominent again as a sleep-losing yet conscionable veteran cop, occasionally losing his mind but never losing his heart. Robin Williams, gives a convincing flick of a devil shielded with a writer's position. He's shrewd and almost controlling before you, yet fragile and vulnerable behind. The only regret is that the character was reduced at it's screenplay level, with only forty minutes screen time. Williams leads the role as a dominant yet also an undercurrent, with a dark impact, which was insinuated in the endless shining set and Al Pacino's progressive sleeplessness.

Beyond these two men's insomnia circle, Swank, portrayed an idolizing yet astute enough young cop, timely refreshing you and rightfully-oriented when you are becoming fatigued and confused with the two men's psychological battle. Slightly pale yet still lovable at the same time. Maura Tierney also lends a helping hand as the Hotel manager who sympathises with Pacino's character.

Director Chris Nolan covered all these twists with atmospheric directing, not showing off yet blatant which, normally seen in Hollywood thrillers, restrains story-telling and thought-evoking. He delivered a masterpiece which you can see many times without being bored.