Insomnia (1997)

Why is the Norwegian original infinitely better than its 2002 American remake? Let us count:

1. Stellan Skarsgard is not very likable, which makes his character more complex, not less sympathetic.
2. He doesn't just shoot a dead dog, preserving our delicate interest in him; he shoots a live dog, letting us know that he means business.
3. The killer is not so much creepy as inscrutable.
4. Norwegians aren't folksy, like Alaskans, they're just cold and hateful.
5. Skarsgard fondles the girl's friend during their drive; he doesn't chastely put his hand on her knee. See reason #1.
6. Skarsgard doesn't die in one last melodramatic, conscience-clearing shootout with Evil; he gets away with his crimes, suggesting that morality has little or nothing to do with justice.
7. No shotgun O.K. Corral nonsense at the end, just a loose board, an accident, and a nasty bump on the head.
8. No nagging back story about "internal affairs" to explain ad nauseam our antihero's murderous reflex while out on the moors.
9. No high-speed exposures of plants fermenting, or whatever that is in the Nolan version.
10. Most important of all, the movie disturbs us by showing what we're capable of, not what we're capable of redeeming.

"The good ended happily, the bad unhappily. That is what fiction means."

Amen, Oscar, so watch this extraordinary heathen blues from the far north.