Insomnia





Loved this movie.

Christopher Nolan is quickly becoming one of my favorite directors (Batman Begins and Memento = brilliant), and this was just as good as his others. Great, great performances by Al Pacino (one of my favorite actors) and Robin Williams (who I'm not a fan of, but liked in this movie).

The ending was great, too. A-

Fantastic movie. Only complaint is that we needed to see more of Williams who doesn't appear enough in it. He gives a fantastic performance and was robbed of a second Oscar. (And I'm a huge Williams fan. 4 of his movies are in my top 20)

The film, while not masterful, is generally suspenseful. The Alaskan scenery is rather breathtaking and the performances by the three leads (Al Pacino, Robin Williams, Hilary Swank) are all effective, especially Williams. B

Really great movie, all the actors were great, the story/plot while not the most original thing was very well done imo and it doesnt feel like your ordinary catch the killer suspense movie, it's deeper then that and one of the reasons is because of the subplot involving Pacino and what he did. Williams was great but not as good as he was in One Hour Photo, this guy needs to do more of this dark type roles, he's great in them. Lets not forget the fantastic job Nolan does behind the camera.

Grade - A-

Shouldve got nominated for One Hour Photo.

Interesting re-make and if it was anybody else but Nolan directing I'd have no hesitation giving an A but the whole thing feels a bit to cliche for the man.

Robin Williams is truly excellent thou, one wishes he let out the slimy evil side more often. An the cinematography and clever use of light is top notch also.

B+

I liked Insomnia.

Somnia would have been a more accurate title -- this movie put me too sleep!

Insomnia turned out to be a very lacklustre followup for Mr. Memento - it had showy cinematic devices coming out the wazoo, but sadly none of them came close to matching the time travel tricks of its predecessor. Sadly, Robin and Hilary were not put to much use, and tragically Al wasn't either.

2 out of 5.

(And now with the below average Batman movie and the poorly directed Prestige, it looks like Nolan may turn out to have been just a one trick pony...)

Nolan's worst (thus far, and I haven't seen Following) but that's not a detriment against it. The story appears generic and straight-forward, but has some great depth to it and is always involving and interesting. Williams is terrific and Pacino drives the film, but I felt that Swank was fairly mediocre. Great direction and cinematography, beautiful landscapes, and some fantastic character development. A top-notch thriller.

I had no idea Nolan directed this. I saw it a couple of months ago and it was indeed excellent. Williams was awesome, continuing his streak of good dramatic performances with this and One Hour Photo. The ending was masterful.

B+

B+


It's the worst effort by Nolan I have seen so far (haven't seen The Following yet), but that still makes for a very solid thriller. I haven't seen the original, so I can't compare the two, but Insomnia is just a pretty well-made film in itself.

Certainly, it's not very subtle (the insomniac cop's name is Dormer?! C'mon!) and it's not devoid of some pitfalls of generic thrillers. However, the acting of the film's two male leads makes it easy to overlook these flaws. Pacino is in one of his better recent performances here and thankfully doesn't spend the entire film cursing and screaming in rage. It's Robin Williams who delivers the unexpectedly best turn here as the evil slimeball. Hilary Swank is a bit underused here and has a very clichéd role, but she did just fine.

Much like in other Nolan films, this one has a lot of style that thrillers often lack. The chase scene with Pacino running over the logs is brilliantly filmed as is the scene in the fog when Dormer shoots his partner. The cinematography and the editing are both top-notch here. The Alaskan landscape obviously helps matters to, so the film just looks very pretty. I think the ending could have been a bit less generic and the effects of insomnia on Dormer a bit more played out than they were (though there are some really nice touches of that in the film), but on the whole I really liked this suspenseful thriller.

This is how I'd rank Nolan's films as of now:

1. Memento
2. Batman Begins
3. The Prestige
4. Insomnia

Finally caught this on HBO. I really liked it, although other than the brilliant visuals and camerawork there's not too much here to make it stand out among other thrillers. Pacino was great, while Williams and Swank got the job done. The story to me felt a little minor, and I was hoping by the end that it would have developed into something a little more interesting. That being said, the climax was handled extremely well and almost made up for the fact that it wasn't very surprising nor original.

B+

I'd argue that Pacino's last great performance was actually in Merchant of Venice.

See itl. The performance is OTT (not surprising with Pacino), but in that one it actually really fits.

If it weren't directed by Nolan I'd give this an A

but This is Nolan's worst film

B+

And finally after a week of Nolan movies I can rank them

TDKR 11/10 A++
TDK 10/10 A+
Inception 10/10 A+
Memento 10/10 A+
BB 9/10 A
Prestiige 9/10 A
Insomnia 8/10 B+

Closest thing to perfection.

That's kind of a bullshit ranking system "loosing points because it's a Nolan film"

This is easily his most underrated film. Sure it has a A list stars, but it's such a well made thriller from start to finish. I think the films ugliness makes it a little less accessible. But for me it's the last film that feels like the Nolan of Memento, and not the glossed over blockbuster guy he's become, and that's not a negative thing. I think he's still awesome, just not the same way he was 10 years ago.

Yeah it ranks on the bottom of Nolan's list but it still has some shining moments. The visual landscapes and the chase scene between Pacino and Williams is great. There are a couple of ridiculous turns along the way that I felt were a bit unnecessary but other than that its good. Nolan's great approach to internal matters with a character stays strongly in tact here and both Pacino and Williams tackle it well.

Finally watched this, I really dug it.

BUMP


Totally forgot for a while Williams starred here,

He was great as expected

I really didn't get into Insomnia. Williams was nothing special. Just because he died, I'm not going to go around and say he was this brilliant actor because he was not, like, at all. One Hour Photo was fantastic, though.

I never particularly dug this one. Despite a fine cast and atmospheric cinematography, it has this slightly inert quality. Boring, almost. The original 1997 film with Stellan Skarsgård is far superior.

I shall try and get my grubby mitts on that one.

It doesn't stand out as much as some of Nolan's more recent films, but this is still a pretty damn good thriller anchored by two great performances from Pacino and Williams who is sorely missed IMO. It's probably not as good of a performance as his turn in One Hour Photo, but I still found him to be really chilling at times and I would have loved to see him play more villainous and dark roles like this in the future. It also has some great atmosphere and cinematography, but Hilary Swank did feel pretty underused. It would honestly be kind of refreshing if Nolan went back to making more small scale films like this and Memento after Tenet, but I doubt it will actually happen considering whats expected out of him nowadays.

B+

Watched this for the first time since 2003. It is definitely the most UnNolanly of all the Nolan pictures, it doesn't have the usual BWAMS and whistles. If anything it is more of an acting showcase for Pacino and Williams, who are both incredible. But I imagine getting those performances here is how Nolan has been able to consistently fill in his movies with whatever A-List talent he wants.

B+