Insomnia | The ALASKAthon

I've decided to finish the left-up work and continue the ALASKAthon as a final installment on this blog. Maybe it's because I cut my toe and am thus excluded from most fun summer activities or maybe it's because I just don't want to leave my blog as a half-baked mess. Better to end things neatly if you really have to end them. 

When I started the ALASKAthon, people told me that I might not want to go to Alaska anymore after having seen these movies. This prepared me for many unlikable, cold characters and the quietude and brutality that I've found in many of the films I chose. While this may sound off-putting to many readers and filmgoers, I have found many of the characters in films like Insomnia to be less black-and-white than just very realistic human beings. People that struggle with morals and their past, who (in most cases) have come to Alaska to start a new life. 

In Insomnia, there are two people who fit that profile: Los Angeles police agent Will Dormer (Al Pacino) and mediocre author Walter Finch (Robin Williams). The nature of the story, a crime thriller with quite a few twists, forbids me to talk more in-depth about these two characters and their internal struggles. But their similarities and differences and the shared insomnia make for a fascinating, character-driven film that questions every human's ability to commit homicide and whether the end justifies the means. 

Al Pacino and Robin Williams deliver two haunting performances and play off each other most of the movie. Their quiet conversations on the phone and in other places are hypnotizing and deeply psychological. Hilary Swank as a clever police officer workaholic is the obvious antipole to the two bitter men and once again convinces me that she is a highly underrated actress. 

The marooned Alaskan small town setting, the ever-present sunlight and the variety of grey tones in the characters are what make Insomnia one of the most intriguing crime thrillers of the 2000s that I've seen. Being the first 'real' Hollywood installment in this blogathon, it's an interesting mixture of a stylized approach to the Alaskan wilderness and the human conflicts it contains and a cunningly scripted emotional thriller that leaves you on the edge of your sledge.  

SPECIAL ALASKATHON MOVIE BREAKDOWN

How capturing/ engaging/ interesting is the film? (out of 5 northern lights)

How gorgeous does the film - or the Alaska in it - look? (out of 5x Timothy Treadwell's hair)

How much does the film itself make you want to go to Alaska? (out of 5 sledges)

INSOMNIA

2002 • USA/ Canada • English

director Christopher Nolan

authors Hillary Seitz, Nikolaj Frobenius, Erik Skjoldbjærg

★ Al Pacino, Hilary Swank, Robin Williams