Directed by : Chistopher Nolan
Imdb link -> http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0278504/
Very unlike Nolan cinema, but not a weak film. Terrific performance by Al Pacino.
Just as you are about to dismiss something, think about it. Look at it again.
Read at your own risk, the post may have some spoilers.
One of very different movies from the usual Nolan ones, reason being that the character's performance (Al Pacino) dominates much more than the screenplay/story.
Will Dormer (Al Pacino) and Hap Eckhart (Martin Donovan) are two detectives who are brought to Alaska to solve a young girl Kay Connell (Crystal Lowe) death's case. Will has some differences with Hap over the past cases, and while trying to solve Kay case, a mishap leads to Hap's death. Will can't sleep now, with the images of Hap's death in his mind. He has a case to solve, and a death of Hap which he isn't sure if he did it intentionally or was a accident. When the killer of Kay contacts Will telling him he knows how Hap died, Will goes into a dilemmna. Should he support the real killer and keep himself and his reputation safe, or should he tell the truth to everyone and let the justice prevail.
Except for the 1st scene, the blood one, Nolan keeps the narrative linear, which isn't the case in his movies. That is one reason why I am writing this post after seen the film just once. Though he uses flashback shots of few seconds every now and then, be it the Kay's death ones when Will sees her body, or the conscious mind of Will dealing with Hap's death guilt.
The background theme that constantly plays with Pacino ever since the Hap accident, was effective.. gives a emotional feel to his character.
There's a scene where for first time Dormer hallucinates, imagines Hap walking along with other guys. But Nolan, doesn't try to go into this territory further. Similarly, the scene where Dormer feels head moving slowly, while at the station watching people around, we see the 'less sleep' effecting him little bit for first time.There are night scenes, where his conscious doesn't let him sleep, and then the scene where he is driving and almost has a accident. Or when he confuses himself between Ellie (Hilary Swank) and Kay while talking to Walter Finch (Robin Williams) If I had seen this movie when it released, these two points may not have been of much importance, but since I saw recently and having seen his all other movies, what I felt was Nolan could had gone deeper into hallucination or insomnia creating problems, and given further layers to the movie. But, he doesn't do that.
Nolan is more interested in a simple point 'If you go wrong way, you may make it a habit.. and make it tougher for you to come out of it'. Dormer started it with Dobbs who in his view deserved to be in jail, so looking by his part, he did right even though it was wrong way of doing it. Just like the receptionist tells him 'Its about what you thought was right at the time, Then what you are willing to live with'. There's no clear answer given to whether Dormer actually killed Hap willingly or it was the fog that made his sight not clear. I would like to believe that it was fog, and not his will to do that, even though the situation looks ideal for him to kill Hap.
I like the end, Dormer tries to stop Detective Ellie going the way he went since Dobbs case.
The scenes between Dormer and Walter are very powerful, the first two calls Walter makes to have attention of Dormer. And then, the chase by Dormer which almost takes his own life. The ship sequence where Walter makes Dormer realize how similar situation both of them are into, for killing people they didn't mean to. The truth Walter tells about how he killed Kay, on phone to Dormer, as Dormer astonishingly listens and hangs up the phone feeling this is a murderer who deserves to be in jail just like Dobbs, but he has seen him kill Hap. The station scene between them gets very interesting as Walter tries to do things which Dormer warned him not to do, ofcourse Dormer was trying to make sure Walter doesn't let any innocent (Randy) get accused. But Walter wants Randy to be the one getting involved, thereby making Dormer very angry and almost ready to kill. Walter was pretty smart all the time, except for that novel that he left by that allowed Dormer to find him. But he knew how to set up Dormer, with all the wild cards and fake story to make Randy look the murderer. In a scene, Dormer argues 'It took you 10 fucking minutes to kill her, you call that an accident?', to which Walter replies 'It took you fraction of a second to kill Hap, does that make any more of an accident?', you wonder how true both are, none can justify they were right in their killing that happened by mistake.
The final confontration scene between them however was dissappointing, it ended up like a routine finale without any major thrills.
Its good that some of the key changes were done from original script, like Pacino doesn't grab the girl by legs in car instead he threatens her by reckless driving (which was a super scene). Then, the dead dog is alive originally, which he kills later (that would had been much more terrible). And, Pacino flirts a lot, eventually almost raping the Hotel receptionist.. in the original script. All this scenes if were used as it is, then only thing it would had done was you would feel no sympathy at his death in last scene.
Al Pacino gives a brilliant performance, the way he walks and solves case.. gives the feel of how long its been since he slept properly. In the movie, we are told its 6 days, but maybe the insomnia started for him with Dobbs case as he looks in similar kind of state when in jetplane arriving Alaska. All upto how you wanna interpret the pre-movie part. The idea of chewing gum to stay awake was good one, gave that style into Pacino's dialogue delivery that looks so good on him. Love how he extracts information out of Kay's best friends.
Robin Williams played his psycho character very well, specially the scenes where he leaves Dormer into a dilemma, and the confession scene on phone about how he killed Kay.
Hilary Swank was good, look at how excited she is to work with famous Detective Dormer together. But after Hap's incident, she starts noticing a change in Dormer, and her investigations regrading Hap death leads to serious doubts over Dormer. Love that scene where she tells Dormer 'A good cop can't sleep because something's missing, while a bad cop can't sleep because his conscience won't let him'.
Insomnia may not be your first choice when you think of watching a Nolan movie. But, I wont like to call it Nolan's weakest film, its just a film that can't classify as Nolan's classics as it fails to reach upto the standards Nolan films usually have. Watch it as a regular thriller (though slow), it wont dissappoint.
Imdb link -> http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0278504/
Very unlike Nolan cinema, but not a weak film. Terrific performance by Al Pacino.
Just as you are about to dismiss something, think about it. Look at it again.
Read at your own risk, the post may have some spoilers.
One of very different movies from the usual Nolan ones, reason being that the character's performance (Al Pacino) dominates much more than the screenplay/story.
Will Dormer (Al Pacino) and Hap Eckhart (Martin Donovan) are two detectives who are brought to Alaska to solve a young girl Kay Connell (Crystal Lowe) death's case. Will has some differences with Hap over the past cases, and while trying to solve Kay case, a mishap leads to Hap's death. Will can't sleep now, with the images of Hap's death in his mind. He has a case to solve, and a death of Hap which he isn't sure if he did it intentionally or was a accident. When the killer of Kay contacts Will telling him he knows how Hap died, Will goes into a dilemmna. Should he support the real killer and keep himself and his reputation safe, or should he tell the truth to everyone and let the justice prevail.
Except for the 1st scene, the blood one, Nolan keeps the narrative linear, which isn't the case in his movies. That is one reason why I am writing this post after seen the film just once. Though he uses flashback shots of few seconds every now and then, be it the Kay's death ones when Will sees her body, or the conscious mind of Will dealing with Hap's death guilt.
The background theme that constantly plays with Pacino ever since the Hap accident, was effective.. gives a emotional feel to his character.
There's a scene where for first time Dormer hallucinates, imagines Hap walking along with other guys. But Nolan, doesn't try to go into this territory further. Similarly, the scene where Dormer feels head moving slowly, while at the station watching people around, we see the 'less sleep' effecting him little bit for first time.There are night scenes, where his conscious doesn't let him sleep, and then the scene where he is driving and almost has a accident. Or when he confuses himself between Ellie (Hilary Swank) and Kay while talking to Walter Finch (Robin Williams) If I had seen this movie when it released, these two points may not have been of much importance, but since I saw recently and having seen his all other movies, what I felt was Nolan could had gone deeper into hallucination or insomnia creating problems, and given further layers to the movie. But, he doesn't do that.
Nolan is more interested in a simple point 'If you go wrong way, you may make it a habit.. and make it tougher for you to come out of it'. Dormer started it with Dobbs who in his view deserved to be in jail, so looking by his part, he did right even though it was wrong way of doing it. Just like the receptionist tells him 'Its about what you thought was right at the time, Then what you are willing to live with'. There's no clear answer given to whether Dormer actually killed Hap willingly or it was the fog that made his sight not clear. I would like to believe that it was fog, and not his will to do that, even though the situation looks ideal for him to kill Hap.
I like the end, Dormer tries to stop Detective Ellie going the way he went since Dobbs case.
The scenes between Dormer and Walter are very powerful, the first two calls Walter makes to have attention of Dormer. And then, the chase by Dormer which almost takes his own life. The ship sequence where Walter makes Dormer realize how similar situation both of them are into, for killing people they didn't mean to. The truth Walter tells about how he killed Kay, on phone to Dormer, as Dormer astonishingly listens and hangs up the phone feeling this is a murderer who deserves to be in jail just like Dobbs, but he has seen him kill Hap. The station scene between them gets very interesting as Walter tries to do things which Dormer warned him not to do, ofcourse Dormer was trying to make sure Walter doesn't let any innocent (Randy) get accused. But Walter wants Randy to be the one getting involved, thereby making Dormer very angry and almost ready to kill. Walter was pretty smart all the time, except for that novel that he left by that allowed Dormer to find him. But he knew how to set up Dormer, with all the wild cards and fake story to make Randy look the murderer. In a scene, Dormer argues 'It took you 10 fucking minutes to kill her, you call that an accident?', to which Walter replies 'It took you fraction of a second to kill Hap, does that make any more of an accident?', you wonder how true both are, none can justify they were right in their killing that happened by mistake.
The final confontration scene between them however was dissappointing, it ended up like a routine finale without any major thrills.
Its good that some of the key changes were done from original script, like Pacino doesn't grab the girl by legs in car instead he threatens her by reckless driving (which was a super scene). Then, the dead dog is alive originally, which he kills later (that would had been much more terrible). And, Pacino flirts a lot, eventually almost raping the Hotel receptionist.. in the original script. All this scenes if were used as it is, then only thing it would had done was you would feel no sympathy at his death in last scene.
Al Pacino gives a brilliant performance, the way he walks and solves case.. gives the feel of how long its been since he slept properly. In the movie, we are told its 6 days, but maybe the insomnia started for him with Dobbs case as he looks in similar kind of state when in jetplane arriving Alaska. All upto how you wanna interpret the pre-movie part. The idea of chewing gum to stay awake was good one, gave that style into Pacino's dialogue delivery that looks so good on him. Love how he extracts information out of Kay's best friends.
Robin Williams played his psycho character very well, specially the scenes where he leaves Dormer into a dilemma, and the confession scene on phone about how he killed Kay.
Hilary Swank was good, look at how excited she is to work with famous Detective Dormer together. But after Hap's incident, she starts noticing a change in Dormer, and her investigations regrading Hap death leads to serious doubts over Dormer. Love that scene where she tells Dormer 'A good cop can't sleep because something's missing, while a bad cop can't sleep because his conscience won't let him'.
Insomnia may not be your first choice when you think of watching a Nolan movie. But, I wont like to call it Nolan's weakest film, its just a film that can't classify as Nolan's classics as it fails to reach upto the standards Nolan films usually have. Watch it as a regular thriller (though slow), it wont dissappoint.
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