Swedish homicide investigator Jonas Engstrom (Stellan Skarsgard, star of laugh-a-minute Breaking The Waves) and his chirpy, flirtatious side-kick Erik Val (Sverre Anker Ousdal) trudge over to Northern Norway (the Land of the Midnight Sun) to help in the investigation of a murdered teenage girl. The supposed "perfectionist" killer has scrubbed clean the victim for evidence, including all her hair. However, laughing boy Jonas is on the case.
Kicking-off with a jarred opening sequence that resembles the nightmarish start to David Fincher's Seven, Erik Skjoldbjaeg's feature debut makes a predictable whodunnit, but an all-together more unpredictable investigating cop. Certainly more Bad Lieutenant than Colombo.
Suffering from serious sleep deprivation due to the endlessly light Norwegian days, Jonas vitally loses concentration whilst chasing the killer. In the fog he accidentally shoots and kills his mate Erik. Then, and this is what makes Skjoldbjaeg's Insomnia quite interesting, instead of owning up and doing the decent thing, Jonas conceals evidence pointing to him and even lands on the side of the murderer. From there on in the hunter and hunted become embroiled in a sort of dastardly pact.
Suffering from acute guilt, Jonas becomes increasingly involved in a web of paranoia, deceit and cover-ups, and to top it all he still can't get a decent nap with all these shenanigans going on. You want to sleep for this man. Eventually, of course, he becomes truly psychotic and you sense he would most likely laugh in the face of Mel Gibson's 'twisted cop' in Lethal Weapon. Going steadily more bonkers, Jonas calls a pretty receptionist's kittens disgusting (very bad sign) before trying to rape her against a row of toilet rolls.
Including a grotesque scene with a stray dog, Insomnia is not for squeamish and although it succeeds in keeping the viewer awake throughout there's something very rotten in the state of Norway. Ultimately a measured, compelling and really rather nasty film. Hitchcock might well have approved.
Ben Walsh
Kicking-off with a jarred opening sequence that resembles the nightmarish start to David Fincher's Seven, Erik Skjoldbjaeg's feature debut makes a predictable whodunnit, but an all-together more unpredictable investigating cop. Certainly more Bad Lieutenant than Colombo.
Suffering from serious sleep deprivation due to the endlessly light Norwegian days, Jonas vitally loses concentration whilst chasing the killer. In the fog he accidentally shoots and kills his mate Erik. Then, and this is what makes Skjoldbjaeg's Insomnia quite interesting, instead of owning up and doing the decent thing, Jonas conceals evidence pointing to him and even lands on the side of the murderer. From there on in the hunter and hunted become embroiled in a sort of dastardly pact.
Suffering from acute guilt, Jonas becomes increasingly involved in a web of paranoia, deceit and cover-ups, and to top it all he still can't get a decent nap with all these shenanigans going on. You want to sleep for this man. Eventually, of course, he becomes truly psychotic and you sense he would most likely laugh in the face of Mel Gibson's 'twisted cop' in Lethal Weapon. Going steadily more bonkers, Jonas calls a pretty receptionist's kittens disgusting (very bad sign) before trying to rape her against a row of toilet rolls.
Including a grotesque scene with a stray dog, Insomnia is not for squeamish and although it succeeds in keeping the viewer awake throughout there's something very rotten in the state of Norway. Ultimately a measured, compelling and really rather nasty film. Hitchcock might well have approved.
Ben Walsh