I can't really figure out what the big hubbub is. "Insomnia," a Norwegian film from 1997, is little more than a Stephen Bochco TV cop thing made in a watered-down Lynchian style. The film has police detective Stellan Skarsgard visiting another town to solve the murder of a teenage girl. He has to fly to get there and the captain's announcements call the area "The land of the midnight sun." There's some stuff about the locations that you would have to be a "local" to understand. Part of the plot is that there is almost incessant daylight so they must be very far north. This perpetual light leads Skarsgard's character to suffer from the titular malady. It doesn't help that he's got a personal problem too.

Early in the film, Skarsgard's Jonas Engstrom makes a mistake that, for no real reason, forces him to lie and conceal. If he would just be honest from the beginning, there would be no plot. But this contrivance allows the film to have a story and scripter Nikolaj Frobenious, along with helmer Erik Skjoldbjaerg who co-scripts, tries insufferably to juxtapose Engstrom's lawlessness with that of the film's murderer. In fact, the two characters play a game of ridiculous cat-and-mouse that leads nowhere. Really, it would be surprising to find an audience who would care what happens here.

As director, Skjoldbjaerg injects a sense of static blandness into the film that hopes to accentuate the postured coldness of the main character. But Skjoldbjaerg eventually appears to only suggest a love of Lynch, a sort of mirrored homage to the master. The soundtrack for the film is nice but too often it seems it is composed by someone who has listened to Bowie's "Low" album one to many times.

It's hard to imagine why Warner Brothers would really want to remake this film. Yet they are. I'm sure the minimalist approach taken by Skjoldbjaerg will be dumped for flair and Hollywood's own brand of contrived "drama." Even though the remake is to be helmed by Christopher Nolan, director of this year's indie smash "Memento," one can taste the "Hollywood" look and feel the film will have. Al Pacino, Robin Williams, Hilary Swank, Jonathan Jackson and Martin Donovan are starring. One can only cross their fingers. George Clooney and Steven Soderberg have something to do with the remake as well. It sure seems like a real recipe for disaster. Watching the original and imagining a Hollywood remake only makes me cringe.

Still, sadly, there is no real other reason to watch the original.

Note:

Original score by Biosphere.

Skjoldbjaerg's next film, by the way, will be Christina Ricci's sweetheart project, "Prozac Nation," a Hollywood film.

More of Lodger's reviews indexed alphabetically! Just click your favorite letter to go there.

a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z

HOME