Insomnia - Criterion Collection (1998)

Cat and mouse game

A Nordic thriller, this bleak but beautiful film is meticulously constructed. It tells of a cop who mistakenly shoots a man, then tries to cover it up, only to have his acts slowly unravel as his colleagues look for clues and they all seem to point to him. He's guilty, so he can't sleep. Thus the title. Nice twist at the ending, too. Watch it. September 14, 2008

Psychological thriller...

Norwegian film with English subtitles. Psychological murder thriller that is a brisk 90 minutes in length. Two Swedish detectives, lauded for their crime solving prowess, arrive in Norway to solve the murder of a 19 year old girl. Engstrom, the lead detective, craftily cons the murderer back to the crime scene and surrounds the site with Norwegian police. The murderer manages to elude the group and Engstrom and the police take pursuit. Engstrom manages to make a terrible mistake in the man hunt - he then takes actions to cover it up. His guilt overwhelms him and he is unable to fall asleep - night after night he faces waves of dreams of the horrific incident - and wakes up in cold sweat...and then walks around bleary eyed and paranoid during the day - trying to solve the murder on one hand and getting further entangled in his cover-up on the other. You walk in Engstrom's shoes during the movie - feeling his exhaustion - his paranoia - his overwhelming guilt - and the tension runs in this flick until its conclusion. Great movie...set in beautiful northern Norway - alternating between land of the midnight sun and dreary heavy fog - a perfect background. July 22, 2008

Norge! Norge! Norge!

I just finished watching this movie and I have been wondering what makes this movie special. Stripping this film of its foreignness, I realized that this would be a great thriller/crime drama here in the states, sure to do well in the box office and probably be up there in the average B+ range for critics. Tossing that foreignness back on, the movie shifts to that A range (which it seems barely any movie makes it to nowadays).

The reason for this is no doubt the Norwegian/Swedish cast and Erik Skjoldbjærg direction in the ethereal landscape of Norway. The fact of the matter is, there is rarely a ethereal scene. Most shots are focused on the characters or are limited to a space in which the character may run off to. Skjoldbjærg somehow manages to find the grime and darkness of Norway (which, for those of you who have been there may agree, is one heck of a feat; as houses are brightly painted (as are buildings in the cities), trees lush and green, rolling hills with hues of yellow and green so rich). Not to mention the fact that this is Northern Norway, one of the "Lands of the Midnight Sun". Swedish actor, Stellan Skarsgård who is currently doing quite well in Hollywood, is fantastic. His spiral downward is as rough on him as it is on the viewer.

For language buffs, like myself, Norwegian and Swedish are spoken throughout the movie. In the world of linguistics, it seems that is is a well known fact that Norwegians understand Swedish much better than Swedes understand Norwegian. There is a scene where the detective, who is from Sweden, speaks to a Norwegian in Swedish and the man complains he hasn't a clue what he is saying. An interesting twist of this "well-known fact". March 21, 2008

The fine line between good and evil.

The thing I love about foreign language movies is that the heroes aren't always all that good. They're allowed to be morally ambiguous, just like most human beings are. The original Norwegian version of "Insomnia" is a perfect example of this fact. "Insomnia" is a case study of how anyone can make mistakes under the right (or wrong, depending on how you look at things) set of circumstances and how often the line between cop and criminal can become blurred. Stellen Skarsgard plays hot-shot Swedish detective, Jonas Engstrom, who has been called to northern Norway to investigate a murder. However, as the film progresses, Engstrom's actions resemble more and more those of the killer whom he is trying to catch. It is possible that Engstrom's actions are due to his lack of sleep caused by the endless days in the Arctic Circle, but unlike in the 2002 remake, which starred Al Pacino and Robin Williams, it is never really made clear as to whether this is the real reason or not. It is left up to the viewer to decide. It is for this reason that I believe the original version of "Insomnia" is far superior to the remake and for this reason that I strongly recommend it. January 7, 2008

Mich Better than the US Version

This was a well-acted, excellent tale of murder and human frailty. As usual, hollywood's interpretation was shallow by comparison. Don't let Pacino/Williams' less cerebral version stop you from watching this, the original. December 6, 2007

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