My Favorite Scene: Insomnia

Warning: Critical plot details will be divulged in this post. Certain aspects of the ending will be spoiled.

The thing I love most about Insomnia are those ingenious quick cuts. Several times throughout Christopher Nolan’s shifty, perfect crime thriller, rapid editing is implored to demonstrate frustration, confusion, and general lack of coherence in the film’s main character, Detective Will Dormer (Al Pacino). Because Dormer is plagued with a wicked bout of the titular affliction, his subconscious slowly eats away at him, making all his life troubles that much harder to solve.

But let me back up. Will Dormer and his partner, both veteran LAPD detectives, fly to a small Alaskan town to help solve the murder of a teenage girl. As soon as Dormer arrives, he finds himself unable to adjust to the town’s current 24-hour daylight cycle. And, at the risk of breezing over details, by the end of the film, Dormer is caught in a devilish game of cat and mouse with the girl’s killer (Robin Williams). The killer has dirt on the cop, and, because of this, the cop spends the movie trying to figure out what his best hand is.

Now, throughout the film, Nolan and his editor Dody Dorn effectively use quick editing to evoke Dormer’s mood. Often, the cuts are a series of jump cuts led by sound, meaning, we hear the sound of the action before we actually cut. But there’s something else going on here too.

From one of the very first shots of the film, we see what we think is a figure standing over… something, scrubbing dutifully at… something. Who or what or where or why is completely unknown. And honestly, we’d forget the image were it not for Nolan’s perfectly timed reminders. Most of the hazy images are accompanied by a quick shot of what we finally realize is blood soaking through white fabric.

It is the explanation of this haunting image that paves way for the film’s best scene.

Toward the end of the movie, Dormer trashes his hotel room in an effort to curtain the light pouring in. He throws shit around, tapes the blinds shut – anything for the peace of darkness. The hotel worker, Rachel, (played by Maura Tierney, who’s never given the credit she deserves), knocks on the door to inform him that he’s being too loud. After a brief discussion, she enters the room and that’s when Dormer lets it out. For whatever reason, he decides that this time, right now, is when he’s going to reveal his biggest secret.

Barely able to sit up straight, Dormer tells Rachel about Wayne Dobbs, a sick bastard who kidnapped, molested and murdered an 8-year-old boy. Dormer says from the second he saw Dobbs, he knew he was guilty. Problem was, there wasn’t enough evidence. So, knowing Dobbs to be guilty, Dormer planted some of the boy’s blood in the suspect’s apartment. This is where the hazy flashbacks come full circle, and it is here that Nolan provides us with the film’s most startling image.

We jump cut to Dormer planting the blood, and upon accidently getting a drop of blood on his own shirt cuff, we flash to Dormer’s fresh, well-slept face. His eyes dart up, and he waits. “I could feel it right there,” Dormer tells Rachel. “This is gonna catch up with me.”

Part of the reason I’m so taken with this scene is because it marks the last truly great monologue we’ve heard from Al Pacino. There he is, this cinema icon, halfway to dead, nearly unable to prop himself up on a shitty Alaskan hotel room bed. His face, voice, mannerisms – the man is fucking tired. It’s as fine an acting job as old Pacino has delivered.

The other reason I love the scene is the appropriate way Tierney answers Pacino’s request to verbally judge his misdeeds.

“Why don’t you tell me what you think? Here, now, in this room, you and me… please,” Pacino says with perfect desperation.

Tierney looks at him warmly, and, hell, I could tell you what she says back to him, but I don’t want to ruin every surprise.

Previous installments of My Favorite Scene include:

8 Mile
Babel
Brokeback Mountain
Crash
Fargo
The Godfather
The Godfather Part II
GoodFellas
He Got Game
House of Games
Hustle & Flow
Inception
Leaving Las Vegas
Philadelphia
Platoon
Raging Bull
Redbelt
The Rules of Attraction
Se7en
Sleepers

Traffic

The Week of Nolan:

Monday July 16

the Directors: Christopher Nolan

Tuesday July 17

My Favorite Scene: Inception

Wednesday July 18

In Character: Joe Pantoliano

Thursday July 19

The Polarization of The Prestige

Friday July 20

My Favorite Scene: Insomnia

Saturday July 21

Review of The Dark Knight Rises

Sunday July 22

Why You Need to Follow Following