Robin Williams: 5 Awesome Performances & 5 That Sucked

5 Awesome Performances

5. Walter Finch - Insomnia (2002)

Having started his big screen obsession with memory and introspective looking with Memento in 2000, Christopher Nolan - newly impregnated with lashings of hype - delivered a second superlative film in a row, telling the cat and mouse tale of a sleep deprived cop haunted by his past and by the spectre of moral ambiguity and the killer who knows his secrets. In truth the plot - as engaging as it is - is not wholly important to the film's success: it is more about Nolan's commitment to atmosphere, and making a simple little story gnaw its way beneath the viewer's fingernails and behind their eyes. He wanted his audience to feel Will's entrapment and the weight not only of his guilt but of his inability to sleep, and he succeeded wonderfully thanks to that story framing, and more so because of the two central performances of Al Pacino and Robin Williams. By 2002, Williams had already shown his ability to play it straight, but this was his finest non-comic performance yet: it wasn't as creepy or as unnerving as his turn in One Hour Photo, but his tight, subtle take on the character turned what could have been a stunt casting into a genius decision. He was the perfect choice: an unassuming "little man" with a brutal animal bubbling under the surface and Williams sells both aspects perfectly.