Crooked Los Angeles homicide detective Al Pacino and his partner are called to the remote fishing village of Nightmute, Alaska to investigate the murder of a local teenager. Right from the very beginning, Pacino’s character seems unstable, but then when stress and the town’s perpetual summer daylight cause him to not be able to sleep (I guess, they haven’t heard of blackout curtains yet in Nightmute), Pacino starts stumbling around like the Drunk Stork in the Looney Tunes cartoons. “Congratu…congr…congratulations. You’re a mother.” Soon, Pacino’s sleepwalking existence turns into a nightmare when he shoots and kills his partner. D’oh!
INSOMNIA is a good film and definitely watchable. Unfortunately, the emotional pace of the film is flat for pretty much the entire film. Yeah, yeah there are a few moments of heightened interest (the fog scene, the dog corpse), but for the vast majority of the film we’re merely watching two despicable characters going around being turds. Then again EBOLA SYNDROME is one of the most entertaining things ever filmed and it’s just a single dude running around like a total asshole for the entire movie, so what do I know? I’m so goddamn heartbroken and confused and depressed that I cannot construct full thoughts. I should lay off the serious movies for a few more months. I thought I was ready. I guess not. It was sad, it was sad, it was sad.
Eh, whatever. I enjoyed the film and always love watching Al Pacino chewing up scenery. Steady pace, gorgeous locations, above average acting, one guy with an annoying mustache, a Pantera poster, a video store sign over a florist shop, ol’ girl from GINGER SNAPS, good lighting, nowhere even close to being as violent as I had expected, Twin Peaks vibes, SEVEN vibes, THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS vibes. Good movie, but it could have been much better.
Original - Insomnia (1997)
