How long can you live with guilt? (Insomnia (DVD))

Member Name: GR-Design

Product:	Insomnia (DVD)
Date:	16/09/02 (79 review reads)
Rating:

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What do you do, your career which you have put so much work into is on the line, you’ve already been caught out once and your name has black marks against it. Then you accidentally shoot your partner, you didn’t mean for it to happen, but you can’t own up to it, your name already has those black marks, you could always try to cover it up, afterall, you know that you didn’t mean to do it, but will everyone else know that if it gets out? Some of us would open up and tell the truth, hoping for the best, others would choose to cover it up, blame the murder on someone else and let someone else pay the consequences, but for how long can you live with guilt?

This is the premise of the wonderful film that is Insomnia. I didn’t think I would like it, I thought it would be boring, I was wrong and I will freely admit that!

The film was directed by Christopher Nolan, and I know you have heard it all before, but yes, he was the guy who bought us the wonderful Memento. After watching Memento I was left highly confused and looking for answers, and I do love a film which will put me in this situation, as nasty as it is! So, in Insomnia I was looking for something along the lines of Memento, something to make me leave the cinema pondering to myself. What I got was a film which didn’t leave me pondering, or wondering, but it did leave me satisfied and happy that I had gone to see this and hadn’t picked something else.

I’m surprised to see that the budget for the movie was $46m. Ok, there wasn’t that many huge special effects, but I was expecting something around the $60m mark to be honest, especially with big actors such as Al Pacino taking the leading role. Obviously with it still being in the UK Box Office, I can’t tell you the figures, but I can tell you that it made $67m in the US Box Office and went down there quite well, very well infact, with a total score of 7.7 out of 10, with 5300 votes
on the Internet Movie Database (www.imdb.com) .

Plot...

Detective Will Dormer (Al Pacino) is bought in from the LA crime department to work on a murder in Alaska. We see him talking over his case back in LA with his partner Hap (Martin Donovan). This is how were introduced to the film, not forgetting the very first scenes involving drops of blood and someone rubbing it into their shirts cuff. Even right at the very start, the film is giving you something which will be used much later in the film.

We see the two detectives flying over some very nice, but very rough icy terrain on a small, what looks to be quite old plane which bounces around like it’s held up with two pieces of long elastic! They soon meet Detective Ellie Burr (Hilary Swank), the detective who is on the case in Alaska. Will and Hap has been bought in to help solve the case due to Will having solved loads of murder cases in the past. Hap seems to be there to learn the tricks, and up and coming detective so to speak, or that’s how I saw it anyway.

They soon learn that the body of the murdered female is severely bruised, but not only that, a very good attempt to get rid of any connection to the killer has been inflicted. Thing’s such as cutting the fingernails and toenails, washing the victims hair etc makes the detectives believe that this is not a one time killer, that this is just a taste of murder for the killer, and the killer is not dumb, the other way around infact, especially after looking at the evidence they had left. There are no signs of rape, only bruises to the face and older bruises from before the killing.

We set out on a good adventure to find the killer and once they have the killers home, set out to catch him. One problem, the killer is on the run, they are on a very rocky beach, don’t know their surroundings and there’s very intense fog surrounding them. Visibility is down to an all time low, one of the det
ectives has been shot in the leg by the killer already, they can’t take any chances. Will sees who he thinks is the killer....shoots...only to find out it’s Hap, his partner.

Moving on from this, as we progress through the story, we find that Will cannot for the life of him Sleep. This isn’t helped by the fact that they are above the arctic circle, daylight all day long, it never gets dark. Insomnia creeps in, and we see Will deteriorating as we progress through the film.

The killer actually walks right into Will’s hands, but the big twist.....the killer knows that Will shot his partner and is trying to hide the evidence, the killer is also trying to hide an accidental murder....they have one thing in common, accidental murder......I’ll leave you to watch the film to find out the rest.

End of plot...

What I have just told you is just an outline, an extended version of what you would find on the back of the DVD case if you bought it when it’s available. I have in no way spoilt the film for you (would I do that!?). There’s a lot more to be had from the film and it’s an enjoyable ride in the whole process.

One thing that will really hit you in this film is the scenery. It’s set in a small town in the middle of nowhere in Alaska. You will see Glaciers, plenty of open water and small wooden housing. It really is amazing and I’d love to go there and see it all for myself now I have seen it in the film. Some of the scenes really do stand out to you, take for instance one scene where you can see a frozen river, a waterfall and luscious green trees all down the side of a mountain, then a small wooden hut with it’s own pathway over flooded ground. Amazing scenery and to go with that, good weather effects, unless the weather was always raining and foggy, though I doubt it!

Acting was excellent all round. Al Pacino doesn’t let us down even though he&#
8217;s getting that bit older, which you really can see in the film, scary thought really. Then we have the lesser known Hilary Swank. She’s been in a lot of film, including ‘The Gift’ and ‘Boys don’t cry’ but I can honestly say I had never heard of her until the opening titles of this movie. She gives a very good performance for the role she’s playing, I can see her going far! Then we have the almighty Robin Williams. This isn’t the kind of part he normally plays, he’s more into the funny films such as Mrs Doubtifre and Jumanji to name a couple, but he really does play his part astonishingly well. If I hadn’t have seen him in other films and known his funny side, I really would have thought that this type of acting was his forte, though it’s not. Excellent acting all round, but my hat really goes off to Robin Williams.

The film makes you think, but not just about the plot, it goes more in depth than that and digs into your own personal guilt. How much would you do to protect your career. How much do you respect the people around you and how far will you go to be the best. This is all looked at in the film. One thing that hit me in the film was the saying ‘you have to do what you think is best for now, but it all depends on how prepared you are to live with the guilt’. Theres a lot of guilt and feelings used in the film, which aren’t put in sentences, but are shown to you through the actor’s behaviour, their feelings are shown through their body, and I for one would have missed all this if I wasn’t paying attention! The films I don’t pay attention to are the ones which bore me to tears but I can’t walk out of the cinema until someone else does first!

So would I recommend it? Would the pope recommend the woods?! Of course I would, this was a wonderful film. However, for you Memento fans, don’t go into this film expecting a remake of Me
mento, it’s not going to happen, the way memento was filmed was unique to say the least, and Insomnia let’s you see the food on your plate instead of blindfolding you and giving you a tasting session.

Highly Recommended.

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