‘insomnia’: A sleeper hit

It is of course unfair yet unavoidable to compare Christopher Nolan’s Insomnia to its source, Erik Skoldbjareg’s film of the same name. Both star exceptional actors in the lead roles — Al Pacino in the remake and Stellan Skarsgaard of Breaking The Waves fame in the original — and boast an equally able supporting cast. Both are set in evocatively barren landscapes. Both directors have a distinct vision and show the same artistic temperament. Yet, one can’t help but compare.

Insomnia is the story of a detective sent to a far-flung town where the sun never sets even at night to investigate the brutal death of a teenage girl. Already in a moral crisis about his police ethics and drugged by a lack of sleep, his state of mind is brought into upheaval when he accidentally shoots his partner while chasing a suspect through a fog. He covers up his crime, and spends the rest of the film being taunted by the killer who witnessed the shooting.

Director Christopher Nolan — whose last film Memento can be described as Rashomon re-shot with a script by Raymond Chandler — is clearly adept at exploring the gray areas of morally ambiguous personalities. From his debut Following to Insomnia, his characters are already in a state of flux and are somewhat misguided individuals who are dedicated to their causes. He clearly understands them though.

Pacino’s detective William Dormer is not an unsympathetic character; in fact, Nolan’s biggest achievement is making the audience values scale tip to a point wherein we want Dormer to get away. Therein lies the difference. In the Skoldbjareg film, the director never asks us to understand Skarsgaard’s Jonas Engstrom; it just chronicles his descent into madness. While Pacino’s portrayal is humanistic and conscience-heavy, Skarsgaard’s is point-blank and brutally unhinged.

Surprisingly, though, even if Pacino manages a great performance, the more compelling interpretation is clearly Skarsgaard’s. Hollywood — in its infinite wisdom — clearly demands the black and whites to be clearly defined by the end of the movie. Nolan and his screenwriter take pains to establish the motives why Dormer is covering up his crime and gives him a chance at redemption in the end. Engstrom in the original, however, just disintegrates before our very eyes, managing still to come out at the other end of the tunnel oddly triumphant. What the remake has over the original is a better villain in Robin Williams. Subverting his comic image to play an introverted and flawed character — somewhat a dark interpretation of his Dead Poet’s Society and Awakenings roles — Williams plays it natural and gets it perfectly. The only problem though is that we expect to hear a punchline whenever he utters anything.

There’s a bleakness though that informs both films, making them interesting character studies. And even if they differ in some respects, there’s clearly an affinity between the two that makes for rewarding viewing.

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Another interesting thriller that was released sometime ago was David Fincher’s Panic Room. The trademark visual flare of the director is still very evident in his latest work: impossibly intricate camera movements, a rich color palette and tense editing style.

The story is simple enough. A newly-divorced woman (Jodie Foster) and her androgynous daughter move into a house that was owned by an eccentric millionaire. One of its features is a bunker-type room — a panic room — that has all the state-of-the-art surveillance gadgetry and emergency supplies to be used if ever the house is broken into. Not knowing that the mother and daughter are there, three intruders invade the home to retrieve some hidden wealth. After being alarmed, the two take refuge in the panic room, the very place where the intruders need to get to their loot.

Panic Room is director Fincher’s Rope — the challenge being to create a suspense film set only in one location. Despite the thrills, one leaves the theater with the feeling that one has eaten too much popcorn: all fluff, only air inside. That’s not to say that Panic Room is not a well-made film; it’s actually brilliant visually. However, it only hints at Fincher’s potential. One wants to know what he can come up with given a more thoughtful script.

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