Insomnia (2002) ****

Insomnia is Christopher Nolan's follow-up to Memento that deals with L.A. homicide detective Will Dormer (Al Pacino) and his trip with his partner Hap (Martin Donovan) to the remote Alaskan town of Nightmute where a 17 year old girl has been brutally beaten to death. As the film and the investigations progresses Dormer falls further down a spiral caused by an internal investigation back home, the games played by a local author/suspect (Robin Williams), and the fact that the sun never sets in this land way north of the border. Hillary Swank rounds out the cast as Detective Ellie Burr, a cop start struck by Dormer's legendary status.

The script is a remake of an earlier European film with Nolan moving the setting to northern Alaska which gives quite a few great background pieces while saving others, such as a gray, fog filled beach cabin as a place to be apprehensive about. Swank is great as the detective eager to please her mentor. She almost has a Mayberryesque presence but she's far smarter than her comrades at the police station. Robin Williams continues his pattern of playing psychos in Insomnia, but this one's different. He's more a recluse that finds himself in a situation that pushes him over the edge. The madness was there, he just needed something to give him a push. Al Pacino literally looks like he's been awake for days. The dizzying shots of a mind without sleep are great from Nolan, but you can just tell in Pacino's eyes that his minds on the brink due to lack of sleep. He's almost like a dead man walking.

Insomnia is a great thriller that has twists and turns along the way, but no real huge surprises that are so prevalent today. It doesn't try to shock you. It just follows a spiral to the end of the road.