This distinction actually matters in more than one way that I don’t think I initially picked up on, including that Swedish police officers generally do carry firearms while their Norwegian counterparts do not, a fact that becomes very important to the plot of the movie. Our detective finds that he can’t sleep, and some combination of the case, the constant sunlight, and other things is causing him to go crazy.ĭetective Engstrom is played by Swedish actor Stellan Skarsgård, his part being rewritten after his casting to make the character a Swede who had moved to Norway.
Insomnia film 1997 streaming movie#
The thing is, this small town is Tromsø, Norway, above the Arctic Circle, and for two months every summer (aka when this movie is taking place) the sun never sets, even in the middle of the night. Norway’s entry in our World Cinema Winter Festival is a thriller about a big city (in this case the big city is Oslo, I think) detective called in to investigate the brutal murder of a teenage girl in a small town. Whether this is the case for you personally with any particular movie premise is a different question, but the elevator pitch for Insomnia is 100% Something I Would Watch. Where to Watch: Stream with subscription on the Criterion Channel, buy or rent on Amazon Video or Apple TVįor some movies you have to go, “here’s the plot, it may not sound like any great shakes, but I promise it’s very well done,” and then there are movies like Insomnia, where the premise basically sells itself.Ulrichsen, Kristian Figenschow, Thor Michael Aamodt, and Frode Rasmussen Starring: Stellan Skarsgård, Sverre Anker Ousdal, Bjørn Floberg, Gisken Armand, Maria Bonnevie, Bjørn Moan, Maria Mathiesen, Marianne O.Writers: Erik Skjoldbjærg and Nikolaj Frobenius.It’s remarkable how menacing never-ending broad daylight can be, considering that most crime thrillers favour the inherent threat of the dark and the shadows. The look of the film, with its muted palette of cold blues and browns and the harsh light of the midnight sun, is a crucial ingredient and so is the Norwegian landscape, especially during the tense chase sequence set in the misty wilderness early in the film. I haven’t seen the 2002 remake by Christopher Nolan with Al Pacino (the only Nolan film I haven’t watched yet), but I’m willing to bet that it softened its version of Engstrom considerably. Even though his misdeed is an honest mistake, Engstrom is hardly a sympathetic character and it’s to Skarsgard’s credit that he remains a compelling protagonist to follow. The line between real and imaginary becomes blurred, making it hard to say whether certain sequences only exist in the detective’s fevered mind. I won’t spoil it but I’ll just say that the sunlight streaming through Engstrom’s hotel window at night is not just a quirk of the film’s setting, but a manifestation of his guilt.įrom that point on Insomnia unfolds more like a psychological study rather than a conventional procedural, as Engstrom becomes both the hunter and the hunted and his life transforms into a walking sleep-deprived nightmare. So far so yet another small-town dead girl mystery, but then the movie goes and throws a curve when Engstrom’s plan to trap the murderer goes terribly wrong. The movie begins with a disturbing montage of the murder, with the killer leaving no trace and even carefully washing the girl’s hair before dumping her body. Skarsgard plays Jonas Engstrom, a disgraced Swedish detective who is called in to investigate a murder of a young woman in Tromsø, a city above the Arctic Circle in northern Norway where the sun doesn’t set for months in summer.
I’ve been watching bleak and moody Danish noir lately, so I thought I’d change it up and watch some bleak and moody Norwegian noir instead, namely this 1997 thriller with Stellan Skarsgard.
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