INSOMNIA
Insomnia
shows one of the dangers of writing the thriller form.
This is a very popular genre, but it is extremely
narrow. Most writers of thrillers have great difficulty
creating plot because there is usually just one suspect.
The audience learns fairly soon who probably committed
the crime.
In this
film, casting compounds the problem of the single suspect. The
audience knows you don't cast Robin Williams as the bad guy
unless he's really the bad guy. The only surprise comes from
how the opponent attacks the hero - which isn't much - and how
the hero catches him.
The writer
tries to compensate for this basic deficiency by making the
hero morally culpable. But the result is that both the main
plot line and the hero's moral decline are given short shrift.
Bottom
line: if you are going to do a thriller, pay the dues
and do the genre right. Hit the beats that make it
a surprising plot. Without them, you have a small
film that lasts way too long.
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