1 post tagged “insomnia”

Insomnia (2002). I make a point of starting all of my movies with plenty of sneering, self-satisfied, disaffected criticism. "This dialogue is so wooden. Ugh, I've made more subtle exposition in the toilet. This plot twist is so '97." Extensive therapy in the future will discover that it is because I have feelings of inadequacy and have not yet found a way to show my deep love. Current explanations are as follows: I'm a snobbish prick who revels in the failings of my fellow man!

And even taking all this into consideration, I was completely hooked by this movie. By then end, I was wound like a spring, completely shell-shocked, and incapable of forming coherent thoughts. "Wow!" and "Oh my god! He- Jesus Christ!" are pretty much the only things running through my head right now - which, by the way, is still ringing.

Christopher Nolan is a talented director, and his specialty is taking you through an extensive tour of a damaged mind. He employs his impressive arsenal of visual tricks to convey a slippery frustration of a brain that's gone just a little haywire. I've never seen his first movie, Following, but I saw Memento. I liked Memento - liked it a lot - but the story was a bit unformed, and it couldn't really hold its own against Nolan's technical abilities. Now, with Insomnia, Nolan's found a match.

The screenplay is tightly and meticulously woven - involving not just the methodical trickery of a traditional whodunit but an actual development of motivation; changes in impulse, important decisions are made through thoughtful and heartfelt considerations that are subtly shown and, more importantly, believable. Furthermore, the characters are achingly earnest and nuanced. As a result, Nolan's visual tactics, yoked with strong background material, actually add to entire film as a whole - instead of being a neat trick and only a neat trick, as in Memento.

The entire effect is magnificent, tense, and on a small scale a bit epic; there's hubris, there's pride, there's things goeth-a-fall. Stunning things are afoot in Alaska.