While the concept had potential - brought out in the superior Hollywood remake - the unfocused storyline and stoic acting made me doze off briefly while watching this film. This does not happen to me often, and when it does it's a sure sign that my mind has wandered.
Nolan's remake is more suspenseful, features more effective performances (especially by Robin Williams), and a better sense of the relentlessness of the midnight sun. The original's jump-cut-as-lacuna editing may have been fresh for 1997, but movies like Fight Club and Memento have since greatly refined the screen representation of lapses of consciousness, and this review is being written in 2012.
Nolan's remake is more suspenseful, features more effective performances (especially by Robin Williams), and a better sense of the relentlessness of the midnight sun. The original's jump-cut-as-lacuna editing may have been fresh for 1997, but movies like Fight Club and Memento have since greatly refined the screen representation of lapses of consciousness, and this review is being written in 2012.