I hadn’t seen Insomnia since it was first released and I didn’t recall much about it from my original viewing except for the sequence in the mist which visually stayed with me. Honestly, this was before I knew Christopher Nolan was Christopher Nolan.

I was very happy to sit down and take a look at it again for the first time in two decades and really savour it. And I did.

Al Pacino plays the grey-shaded Will Dormer, a Los Angeles police detective, who along with his partner, Hap (Martin Donovan), are shipped up to Nightmute, Alaska to help with a murder investigation. Not only to take advantage of Dormer’s skills but also to get the pair out of the city and the department which is neck-deep in Internal Affairs investigations.

Set in perpetual daylight, the sun doesn’t set between late May and late July because of where they are located, Dormer is immediately on the back foot, his internal clock is shot. Working with Hap and the local police detective, Ellie Burr (Hillary Swank), they begin a hunt for clues, leads and suspects in the murder of a teenage girl whose body has been cleaned and had all traces of evidence wiped from her.

Things escalate quickly when Hap is killed, and Dormer’s own past haunts him and could doom him even as he discovers the killer, author Walter Finch (Robin Williams). The two begin a dangerous cat-and-mouse game that delivers some terrific sequences as Dormer’s insomnia begins to take its toll on his investigative skill, and intellect and the white glare of ice and cloud lends a blur to his vision.

Sharp as a tack, the script had a final draft rework by Nolan but is credited to Hilly Seitz which in turn was based on the 1997 Norwegian version of the film.

Williams doesn’t show up until almost the halfway mark of the film, until that time, Pacino owns the screen entirely, but when the pair share the screen it is fascinating to watch the dynamic at work, there’s a focused intensity to Pacino’s Dormer, and a calculating and cool intellect working behind Williams’ Finch’s eyes.

I like the conversations that the characters have with one another, and how they maneuver around one another in a deadly ballet with Finch taking advantage of Dormer’s lack of sleep. Their discussions show the faults and darkness in each of them, and that is why the movie has to end the way it does.

Insomnia is still a fantastic thriller some twenty years on and reminds me once again why Nolan has become one of my favourite directors. And it also reminded me of how much I miss Robin Williams.