Insomnia (1997)
Erik Skjoldbjærg
When Criterion put out the definite DVD for this movie, I anticipated an intriguing, if offbeat, thriller. "Insomnia," however, was a major let-down. It is slow, predictable, boring, and unconvincing. Perhaps it's the really bad dialogue, or maybe it's the talentless acting, or maybe it's the stupid story, I do not know, but one thing I do know is that entertaining this movie ain't.
On the surface, the Norwegian film has all the ingredients to be an excellent ride. We have a disgraced Swedish detective, Jonas Engström (Stellan Skarsgård) who flies to some dinky little Norwegian town to solve a recent murder of a young high school girl. He is accompanied by his partner, Erik Vik (Sverre Anker Ousdal), who seems to be developing memory problems. The police find the girl's bag and put out a phony TV announcement that they are looking for it, hoping that the killer would try to retrieve it. They ambush the suspect but when he shows up, a chase ensues in the thick fog and Jonas accidentally shoots and kills Erik. Nobody sees him so when he finds the killer's gun, he hides it to replace the bullet in his friend's body and thus pin the crime on the original killer. To top it off, Jonas has insomnia because the "midnight sun" (the 6-months long day) interferes with his sleep (or is it guilty conscience?). When Jonas finds out that the killer is Jon Holt (Bjørn Floberg), who has seen the accident, they team up together to frame the girl's boyfriend. In the end, Jon dies and Jonas is home-free, albeit not free of the suspicion of a fellow police woman.
Yes, that's right, the bad guy gets out. That, however, is not the problem. There are many things that conspire to make this movie less than a winner. At 93 minutes, it's about 25 minutes too long. Now, it is possible that some will like it because of the bleak atmosphere and dark message that it sends, but I've seen bleaker and I've seen darker, so I am not impressed. Siskel & Ebert gave it thumbs up, which goes to show once more that they don't know what they are talking about. There are many better films out there, especially if one treats "Insomnia" as a psychological thriller. Unfortunately, Skarsgård never manages to muster the requisite acting prowess to make a convincing case of his problems. The only redeeming quality of this film is the cinematography but then again, Bergman has done it all before and better with Sven Nykvist.
March 11, 2001. BLS