Starring: Al Pacino, Hilary Swank, Robin Williams, Martin Donovan, Nicky Katt

It would be so much easier to write this review if Insomnia were lousy. I'd write something like, "Insomnia is about a cop who has trouble falling asleep. Unfortunately, during this movie, I had trouble staying awake!"

Fortunately for us, no statement could be farther from the truth. Except, of course, an outright lie. And there are lots of outright lies in Insomnia. And bold-faced lies, quiet lies, and white lies. This movie's so riddled with lies, it would melt a polygraph. Then again, to paraphrase Homer Simpson, a big ball of lies is really just a single lie, right?

Al Pacino does his best hangdog impression in this film. He's playing that guy Al Pacino always plays, but just as they strip a Marine recruit of his dignity in order to reach the disciplined soldier inside, Pacino's been gnawing at this world-weary bit so long that it comes to him as naturally as breathing. He plays Will Dormer, a legendary Los Angeles homicide detective who's seen it all, done it all, and is now reaping a bitter harvest for occasionally straying from the straight-and-narrow. He's the kind of cop that Johnny Cochrane would have a field day cross-examining. His partner Hap (played by Martin "Who?" Donavan, who's channeling Craig Kilborn's older, impossibly more arrogant brother) is also walking that fine line, but he's decided to jump off, and rat out Pacino to Internal Affairs. Geez, pal, didn't you ever see The Godfather? You never snitch on a Corleone.

In order to cool things down while Internal Affairs sniffs around, Dormer and Hap take a real bad excuse for a vacation to investigate a murder in Nightmute, Alaska, where Dormer's old friend is the chief of police. They arrive up north in a town only slightly less weird than Twin Peaks. Dormer, clearly suffering from insomnia (hence the title), is soon surprised to discover that during the Arctic summer it's daylight all the time, which certainly doesn't bode well for Dormer's nappy time habits.

In Nightmute, a young girl was discovered beaten to death, yet meticulously cleaned afterwards (nails trimmed, hair washed). If you've ever seen an episode of C.S.I., you immediately join Dormer in concluding that the killer knew the girl and cared a great deal about her; before he bashed her skull in, that is. Early in the film, our cops (joined by some of the local police, including Hilary "Not a girl, Not yet a woman" Swank) encounter the killer hiding evidence in a foggy creekbed. A gunfight ensues, and then. . .

"I'll shoot the first person who reminds me of The Next Karate Kid."

[INSERT PHOTO "SWANK" here, subtitle: "I'll shoot the first person who reminds me of the Next Karate Kid."

Wait, walk away if you don't like spoilers. This is a biggie, but it happens early on in the film, so the only way I can discuss Insomnia further is if you join me so together we can destroy the Sith. . . wait, sorry, wrong flick. Anyways, you've been warned.

You ever do something so dumb that the moment it happens your mind is immediately aware of every possible bad consequence that can stem from the idiot move you can never take back? Same deal here. While chasing the killer in the fog, either from confusion or lack of sleep, Dormer shoots Hap dead. Oops. It was an accident, right? Even so, Dormer realizes that he had an obvious motive to kill his partner (and, in fact, may not be so sad that he did), so he covers it up, blaming the killer. The police buy it – after all, the man's a legend who can do no wrong – but it turns out that the killer saw Dormer shoot Hap. Double oops.

The killer is deftly played by Robin Williams, who surprisingly underplays what could have been another typical Hollywood "manic genius" murderer. Instead, Williams lets the smart screenplay guide him. His performance reminds me of the Chris Rock routine about O.J. killing Nicole – it's obviously wrong to kill someone, but. . . he understands. Wink, wink. See, Williams didn't really mean to kill the girl, just like Pacino didn't really mean to kill his partner. At first, Williams is just blackmailing Pacino to prevent his capture, but it soon develops into a game of self-affirmation. The only way that Williams can sleep at night (he too suffers from insomnia during the "white nights") is by sharing his rationalization with Pacino – and getting Pacino to agree with him. The rest of the film is spent with Williams pursuing his goal, as Pacino tries to pin the murder on Williams without implicating himself in Hap's shooting. Oh, yeah, plus Pacino's really tired, and keeps making stupid mistakes as he finds it increasingly more difficult to focus.

"I've always loved you."

You could spend hours talking about the morality of Insomnia, it's that interesting of a film. As directed by Chris Nolan of Memento fame, it's quite different from his earlier film. First, it's told forwards instead of backwards; second, Pacino has no visible tattoos. One similarity Insomnia shares with Memento, however, is how they both explore whether the ends justify the means. In both, their respective protagonists are unable to easily tell the difference between right and wrong (one has no memory, the other has told so many lies that it's grown impossible to remember the truth), but they still are burdened with the desire for justice, whatever that is. Unlike Memento, Insomnia has a character with a moral center (Swank's innocent rookie cop), and the audience watches her wondering whether she'll take the same path as Pacino. It's a sign of how much the film succeeds in sucking you in that I wanted Swank to take the easy way out, even though I knew it was wrong. Nolan's turned in a film that's both smart and entertaining, a rarity in Hollywood these days.

So, this film is a keeper. If you like murder mysteries, psychological dramas, or just taut thrillers with no glaring plot holes, Insomnia is one to see. I give it 4 popcorns (it's not perfect – the movie ends in a gunfight, which after all the psychological plotting feels like a bit of a cop-out, but at least it's not your stock lazy chase scene).

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Things to watch out for: The incredible scenery in the film. This movie is gorgeous; the cinematography captures the beauty and desolation of the middle-of-nowhere Alaska wonderfully. You get the sense that man hasn't tamed this land yet, and like Pacino's L.A. cop, he's merely passing through. If I were on the Alaskan tourism board, I'd sponsor this movie. Well, if it weren't for that whole brutal murder thing, that is.

Also, technically, Insomnia is a remake of a 1997 Swedish movie starring Stellan Skarsgard in the Pacino role. I heard there was more sex in that version. And people named Bjorn. And those scary faux cranberry things called "lingonberries." There's no sex in this version, nor Bjorns, nor lingonberries. Your loss.

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Dave Kozik is a guest critic, filling in while Filmboy is on sabbatical.