It is hard to believe that this is Erik Skjoldbjaerg's first film. It seems like a pro job to me. Very rarely do you get thrillers crafted this well. Almost everything is perfect. The script is as taut as possible. I saw no holes, anyhow. The plot is believable and you will never see the best twists coming. Even if you are the type who sits there and constantly guesses what's coming next during thrillers, I doubt you could. The film does a lot to avoid plot cliches. And if I'm wrong about that, if I was just blinded by other aspects of the film, it won't really matter. The characters are very well written. Especially the main character, played by Stellan Skarsgard. He is certainly one of the best actors working today and this may just be his greatest performance yet. He owns the film. The cinematography is effective. It's bleak and cold. The camera moves assuredly, and it's always where it should be. The music is perfectly subdued. The direction in general is simply amazing. The mise-en-scene is marvelous. I love the settings of the film, the threatening, rocky terrain, the broken and rusty buildings, everything. This is a must-see film. One of the best films of the 1990s. 10/10.

P.S.: Christopher Nolan, the man who created the equally impressive thriller Memento, is set to direct the American remake of this film. I personally loved Memento (though I think I'd choose Insomnia over it if I had to),and I wish Mr. Nolan all the luck. I'm sure he knows what a challenge it's going to be. And I certainly pray that he isn't satisfied with simply copying the original. He could do so and mostly get away with it - Insomnia is quite underseen. I sincerely hope that he will make it his own. I already recognize one piece of the film that has to change if the setting is moved to the U.S.: Skjoldbjaerg brilliantly uses the midnight sun in this film. I doubt it would be successful if the setting were, say, Alaska. I don't think Americans would buy it. Nolan is going to have to compensate for the loss of the midnight sun.

Two Swedish policemen, one of them Stellan Skarsgard, arrive in northern Norway to help solve the murder of a high-school girl. The killer is almost trapped but escapes into the fog along the shore. By mistake, Skarsgard shoots and kills his partner. He invents a story in which the girl's murderer shot his partner. Later he's invited by the girl's killer to meet at an isolated place. The two agree to pin the murder on the dead girl's boyfriend, an obnoxious kid anyway. But Skarsgard, plagued by his conscience and the midnight sun, has been unable to sleep and makes an attempt to capture the killer. The killer clobbers Skarsgard and then accidentally falls to his death. A Norwegian policewoman has figured out roughly what went on but contemptuously allows Skarsgard to go back home where, it is fondly hoped, he'll be able to sleep again, although we are left with grave doubts about that. The final freeze frame is of Skarsgard's face and everything fades to black except for his eyes, which are wide open and glow in the dark like an uneasy animal's.

Stellan Skarsgard is just about perfect for the role of the insomniac cop. He always looks half asleep anyway. He slouches around, placid, bookish, as if his mind were elsewhere, maybe in wonderland. You can't ruffle him. When the murderer shoots off his shotgun into the plaster ceiling over his shoulder, Skarsgard simply moves his head to the side with an expression of mild distaste. I show more animation when the dentist says, "Turn this way a little." It's a slow film though, a story of intrigue and character, rather than a who-dunnit with a lot of ancillary action. What I mean is that it's quite different from the American remake that starred Al Pacino. Pacino is equally good at projecting exhaustion but in a very different way.

The logic in this film isn't as clear as that in the remake. Here, Skarsgard can have absolutely no motive for shooting his partner of more than a year. In the remake, Pacino's partner was about to squeal on him for some irregularities to Internal Affairs. And here, all it takes is a single phone call for Skarsgard to agree to meet the killer. Pacino had to listen to Robin Williams sympathize with him about his insomnia. And Pacino's hallucinations were far more vivid -- a massive truck bearing down on him in his lane -- while Skarsgard's are more subtle -- a glimpse of his dead partner's face staring through a window. The remake is palpably "American". It ends with a shoot out that Williams' heavy has never shown himself capable of. Shotguns and pistols bark. Seaside fishing shacks are blown to smithereens. So is Williams, while Pacino dies after a few parting words. The European original ends with a dying fall and an ambiguous hint of things to come. (Those glowing eyes.) Neither film is a masterpiece. They both fit nicely into the generic frame of the guilty cop movie. And in some ways I prefer the remake. It's pace is faster and the characters' motivations are explored in greater depth, and finally it makes more sense. But that stupid final shoot out works against it and it is, after all, not the original, so it gets no bonus points.

17-year-old Tanja is found murdered in the Norwegian town of Tromsø. Kripos police investigators Jonas Engström (Stellan Skarsgård) and Erik Vik are flown in to the Land of the Midnight Sun. The body has been washed clean. Jonas was in the Swedish police until he was caught in bed with a key witness. As they close in on the suspect, Engström accidentally kills his own partner Vik in the fog and then tries to cover it up. He is suffering from insomnia.

The continuous sunlight is a fascinating addition to the noir genre. The foggy shootout is filled with compelling tension. I do wish that the bullet and the gun is laid out more simply in one easy exposition. The investigating officer should have laid out all the evidence of the shootout. Was it a through and through? What's the caliber? Somebody needed to CSI that thing. I kept wondering about the situation of the investigation throughout the movie which left me a little perplex. Stellan Skarsgård brings a compelling paranoid disturbed presence. It's an artfully done thriller.