Fogged in
Grimly purposeful, with barely a shadow of humor, Insomnia is one of those post-Seven thrillers that's so puffed up with its own importance that it doesn't feel it has to bother to be entertaining. The Hillary Seitz script (adapted from a 1997 Norwegian movie of the same name) focuses on Will Dormer (Al Pacino), an L.A. cop who's flown in, along with his partner, Eckhart (Martin Donovan), to help an Alaska fishing town solve the murder of a high school girl. They set a trap for the killer, but in the ensuing chase through an unfamiliar, fog-shrouded terrain, Dormer shoots his partner by mistake.
Both Eckhart and Dormer are under investigation by Internal Affairs back home, and Eckhart was about to turn himself in and make a deal, so he dies believing Dormer eliminated him to save his own skin. Hidden by the fog, the killer, a mystery novelist named Finch (Robin Williams), witnesses their final exchange and blackmails Dormer into helping him frame an innocent man for his crime. The movie's title refers to the guilt that keeps the cop awake night after night while everyone around him assumes Eckhart was downed by the same unknown assailant who killed the teenager.
Seitz and director Christopher Nolan count on the audience's getting so wrapped up in the issue of corruption and in the thematic doubling of the cop and the killer that it won't notice the ridiculous plotting. (The scenes that detail Dormer's meticulous efforts to keep the heat away from Finch while covering up his own shooting of Eckhart are fairly idiotic.)
