Insomnia

It's been quite a few years since I've seen this film.  Upon watching it again, I noticed more of how similar Dormer's character is to Leonard in Memento, in spite of the call back of him saying he'll remember something after being prompted to write it down.  Like Leonard, Dormer creates his own reality.  He is a cop with ongoing investigation from Internal Affairs in regards to a case he handled.  He admits later in the story that he planted evidence all because when he saw the suspect, he was so certain the suspect was guilty all based off of vibes.  Of course he has a much more colorful way of describing this but it breaks down simply to just bad vibes.  He says in his experience he's seen many killers and that people on a jury would have no clue how to spot one but he does and so he felt since the evidence wouldn't be enough to convict, it was his duty to plant evidence to secure the conviction.  I compare this to Leonard but in reality Dormer is more like the other side of the same coin of creating reality.  Whereas Leonard uses his notes that he believes are reliable as facts and not feelings, Dormer uses his feelings and when there's not enough facts, like Leonard writing his notes to essentially create more facts, Dormer creates more facts to back up his feelings with planting evidence.  The only difference is the character redemption where because of Leonard's condition it's doubtful he'll ever truly reconcile for the person he's become, Dormer in the end warns Ellie to not lose her way, recognizing he fell to his fate as a result of him losing his way and continuing down the path to try to keep it from catching up with him.

This point also hits harder for me with seeing it decades later after seeing how much has come out with police and district attorneys who would push their case and use tactics to convict suspects that there wasn't sufficient evidence to prove guilt, just for the sake of making a headline saying they caught their perp.  It makes me despise Dormer's character more now because of this.  Granted he wasn't really a character to be looked up to much in the first place nor did I actually look up to him but I did feel him showing he learned his lesson was admirable.  Which it is but seeing him talk about how sure he is of his feelings when profiling people, is just sickening.  I get he's good at his job with how he can breakdown and analyze the case but this is still profiling at the end of the day.  He didn't say he saw anything specific that was convincing but just that he knew from just looking at the suspect.  This goes even further to ask how many others did he put away just based off of vibes.  

One of the things I always enjoyed with this movie is seeing Robin Williams in a very different role that's more serious but with seeing it this time, I still feel it's worth seeing that performance but at the same time I feel he really wasn't given much to work with.  Granted this is probably the only script that Chris Nolan didn't write himself but only directed so maybe that's why there really wasn't much to flex the acting muscles of the talent in this film.  But one thing I appreciate is the step up in this one from Memento with its cinematography.  It's not his best but is definitely a big step towards Nolan getting to the point of being a filmmaker not just with the story elements that grab your attention but also scenes and images that have become modern classics.

So far I'd continue to say this is the lowest point of Nolan's filmography for me which is one of the things I enjoy more about watching his movies like this.  Granted Insomnia is not a bad film by any means but knowing everything is something I've enjoyed more from previous viewing, this has me more excited to see the rest of his films.  This is definitely a recommend for fans of Christopher Nolan's work and anyone that want to see Robin Williams in a more serious role as he does the best with what he has to work with but outside of that I probably wouldn't recommend this film much as it is kind of mid and in spite of the mentioned jab at remembering, it's one I wouldn't blame anyone who's seen it for not remembering.