Anyone who knows me well knows that I'm ridiculolusly into ScandiNoir. I love how the landscape is treated as another character, the detectives are troubled and at times hopelessly flawed, and the murders or crimes themselves are grisly. That, my friends, is my jam.
What else is my jam? This man. Daddy Skarsgard.
Insomnia, Original Recipe
His sons are all excellent actors and handsome men in their own right but this man is a god. He's subtle, deliberate, and compelling. Daddy Skarsgard simply dominates the screen. I'm watching this particular film for the first time. Yes, the remake is pretty good too but I like to see Original Recipes as much as I can.
Moody atmosphere? Check. Gruesome initial crime which gets the main character to the location? Check. Landscape is forbidding, alive, and palpable? Check. Oh and those 90s suits are killing me.
Insomnia, a short review
What I like about this film and what sets it apart from others in its genre, is the use of light as a driving narrative force. The light is unrelenting, keeping our protagonist awake and off balance. You could also say that the light serves as a metaphor for hiding our secrets in plain sight. Engstrom cannot escape the constant surveillance of the sun and the local police force. And yet he is ultimately able to leave both the area's persistent light and the piercing inquisitiveness of Hagen, who at times seems to be flirting with Engstrom even as she realizes his crimes. As we leave the film, Hagen seems permanently affected by his insomnia and the weight of his culpability.