The World of Christopher Nolan Part 3-Insomnia

"Just let me sleep..."

Insomnia....we have all had it at some point in our lives. Those annoying nights where you just can't get yourself to sleep no matter how hard you try. Whatever it may be, an uncomfortable bed, light streaming from a window, or just to much on your mind, it keeps you up to the wee hours of the morning and the next thing you know it is time to get started with your day. A crazy fact that I learned in one of my psychology classes back when I was in college, is that if you are up for a period of 24 hours straight you begin to exhibit the reflexes and characteristics of someone who has had a little to much to drink. Now take this little annoyance thing called insomnia, apply it to a place in the world where there is constant light for 6 months, and mix these two things together- you get Christopher Nolan's 3rd directorial movie- Insomnia (2002).

One of the first things that I noticed when I was doing a little research into Insomnia (2002) was that this particular movie was just directed by Nolan. He did not have anything to do with the screen play at all. The screen play was written by Hilary Seitz and was based off of a Norwegian film. Nolan did not receive any official writing credit, but according to IMDB, he did have final say on the script.

The basic storyline of Insomnia follows two LA detectives that arrive in as small Alaskan town to assist in the investigation of the recent murder of a 17 year old girl. Detective Dormer (Al Pacino) and his partner, Detective Hap arrive in Alaska and are at odds about an investigation that is happening in their department back at home. Hap tells Dormer that he is going to talk to the investigators and Dormer becomes upset because he believes that this is going to taint his entire life's work as a detective. You are not quite sure exactly what Hap is talking about or why Dormer is upset, but it is clear something is not right. Dormer cannot sleep the first night because of the constant light that is streaming into his room.

The next day the crew goes out on a tip about the murderer. It is already apparent that the one nights lack of sleep is slightly affecting Dormer. While pursuing the criminal, Dormer ends up shooting his partner in the fog. This is the first domino is a series of events that begins to link Dormer and the murderer that he is seeking. As the movie progresses and as each day passes without Dormer sleeping... you begin to see just how bad lack of sleep can become.

I loved to see Dormer's downward spiral throughout the film. It was apparent early on that Dormer was really on top of everything. Not a single detail was over looked and he knew just what to do when things began to go wrong. As each day passed you could see that he became slower and slower, and his lack of judgement became seriously compromised.

Just as Nolan always does, he did an amazing job of painting the picture of one person's psychy and using it to drive a story, without the audience knowing exactly what is that driving force until he wants you to. What I am noticing about Nolan is that there is always something there, that one thing that he uses as his push. What the entire story is based around, and any times it is something so small, yet it is the one thing that starts the dominoes to fall. He gives you the piece, but you never quite know what it is until he wants you to. The first shot in every Nolan film I have reviewed so far (I know it is only 3 but this is in all three) has been significant to each film and its conclusion. In this case, the simple white fabric with some blood. I am curious to re watch his last 4 movies and see if this is the case with them as well.

The acting in this movie was fantastic. Al Pacino did a wonderful job as the strung out, sleep lacking, Detective Dormer. Hilary Swank also did a nice job as the ambitious Alaskan detective. But my favorite actor throughout the entire film had to be Robin Williams. This was the first time I had ever seen Williams play a bad guy, and I thought that he did such an amazing job. After viewing this role, I feel that he has truly been underrated all of these years, and he should have been given the chance to try other roles besides his comedic ones. (One Hour Photo is also amazing) My favorite scene in this movie is when Williams calls up Pacino on the phone and talks to him so calmly about what has happened. So matter of fact. It is one of the creepiest scenes, and one of my favorite scenes of all time.

I am sure that I am sounding very redundant in my Nolan reviews here, but I really don't have anything bad to say about any of them...not yet anyway. What I have noticed about his movies is that he seems to really be interested in the motivations of people. Why they do the things that they do. All of his movies seem be driven by one character's motivations. This drives the story and then has a way of really bringing everything together. Taking this approach to story telling can be dangerous, and if a director or screen writer does the same thing all the time, it can seem to become boring and predictable after awhile. Not with Nolan....he is always looking for new ways and new approaches to telling his story that keeps it fresh and interesting.

If you can't sleep and are looking for something to do....Watch Insomnia and drink an extra cup of coffee in the morning!