U.S. Remakes of Foreign Blockbusters

Sometimes a remake changes the weather of a story, and that changes everything else. In the Norwegian Insomnia, directed by Erik Skjoldbjærg, the northern light itself becomes part of the problem. The setting refuses darkness, and that endless brightness works on the detective’s conscience like a slow drill. Stellan Skarsgård carries the original with a kind of worn ambiguity. Christopher Nolan’s American remake keeps the central premise of a detective unraveling in a place where sleep will not come, but he relocates the mood to Alaska and casts Al Pacino, with Robin Williams taking an unusually slippery dramatic role. The result is more polished, perhaps more conventionally legible, but still effective.