If I say INSOMNIA is nowhere near Robin Williams' worst film, am I actually saying anything?

Do you ever have those moments where memory plays tricks on you? Where you change the shape of a room or the color of a car? Or maybe the end of a movie?

I've done it twice now - a few years ago, I could have sworn CASABLANCA's last shot of Ingrid Bergman was of her looking tearfully out an airplane window at Humphrey Bogart, but then I saw Alfred Hitchcock's NOTORIOUS again and realized I had added a shot from that film into my memory of CASABLANCA. And I just realized I did it with INSOMNIA, too.

My recollections of INSOMNIA were very fuzzy, but I hadn't realized just how fuzzy they were until Nicky Katt showed up and started making with the awesome (as he so often does). For years, I had operated under the assumption that the conclusion of the film was a nicely tied bow that linked two separate cases together under Robin Williams' guilt.

Turns out, that completely doesn't happen. At all. There isn't even a second case. So either there was some sort of unfortunate BLOOD WORK-related crossed-wire-in-my-mind thing, or I'm a fucking idiot.

It's still not a great film, or even a good one, really, but it's nowhere near the travesty I remember it being. Hilary Swank is given a pretty thankless role and she does very little with it, but Pacino has some nice moments here that, again, I didn't remember. He plays a nicely understated guilt through most of the film that is especially effective when you compare it against his more standard scream-loudly-and-wave-my-arms approach. The examination of a cop under investigation by internal affairs feels real and well-researched, as does the actual detective work in the film.

The real problem with the film is, sadly, Williams. Now, I love HOOK as much as the next man. I do not love THE FINAL CUT or ONE HOUR PHOTO. He's just not well-suited to playing creepy. There's too much cultural baggage for him to shake. He's the goddamn Genie, for Christ's sake. But even if we purposely deprived a child of such classics as ALADDIN, JUMANJI, and MRS. DOUBTFIRE in some sort of cruel social experiment, that poor, damaged child still wouldn't believe Robin Williams as a credible foil to Pacino. From the very first moment Williams comes on screen, we know what the end game will be. Williams might weaken Pacino, chip away at him, but in the end, there is no doubt about who the winner will be. The film steadily trails off from the point his character is introduced, which is unfortunate, as his relationship to Pacino is really the film's raison d'être.

Has anyone seen the Swedish original? Is it worth checking out? If it is, there might be a better option than just trying to forget this version - or imagine a version where Jeff Daniels plays the Williams role.