Insomnia
Short description
Two Los Angeles homicide detectives, Will Dormer and Hap Eckhart, travel to a small Alaskan town to investigate the killing of a teenage girl. Dormer is a veteran with a troubled professional history, and the internal affairs inquiry waiting for him back in Los Angeles is part of why the trip was arranged. In the town of Nightmute, the case draws him toward Walter Finch, a reclusive local novelist, while the endless daylight of the northern summer makes sleep impossible.
Christopher Nolan directed the film, his fourth feature, following Memento and preceding Batman Begins. Hillary Seitz wrote the screenplay, and the producers were Paul Junger Witt, Edward McDonnell and Broderick Johnson. Al Pacino plays Dormer, Robin Williams plays Finch, and Hilary Swank, Maura Tierney, Martin Donovan and Nicky Katt appear in supporting roles. The production had a budget of 46 million dollars and took about 114 million dollars worldwide.
On IMDb the film holds a rating of 7.2 from roughly 341,000 votes, while on TMDB it stands at 7 from about 5,500 votes. A critics' rating of 7.8 from 203 reviews places it somewhat above those audience scores. It runs 118 minutes and was released in May 2002.
What's left behind the scenes
- Harrison Ford was invited for the main role.
- As of 2020, this was the only film directed by Christopher Nolan for which he was not credited as the screenwriter – although he wrote the final version of the script himself.
- The actors who played the main roles had completely opposite approaches to acting. Al Pacino insisted on thorough preparation and character development, as well as shooting numerous takes. Robin Williams (1951-2014) preferred improvisation, and Hilary Swank said that after a few takes she lost focus and couldn't stay in character. To help the actors adapt to working with each other, Christopher Nolan allowed them to figure things out for themselves.
- Williams later admitted that the isolation during filming in Alaska contributed to him becoming “unleashed” and starting to drink again.
- The two detectives who arrived to investigate the circumstances of the crime have "speaking" names. The surname "Dormer" resembles the French word for "sleeping" (fr. dormeur). Eckhart's name – "Hap" – translates from French as "luck" (fr. hap). In the film, Dormer will suffer terribly from insomnia, while Eckhart will not be very fortunate.
- Jonathan Demme was originally slated to direct the film 'Insomnia,' but Christopher Nolan ultimately directed it.
Auditions in India
Casting calls in USA
Castingi w Polsce
Кастинги в Україні
