Groggy To The Max

A phone rings. A voice taunts, ''Can't sleep, Will?'' A disembodied hand appears from nowhere. You think you see a skull flicker above it. Soon, cragged tree branches -- or are they cracks in the ice? -- morph into angular telephone poles. And at times you can just make out a woman softly weeping. A bad dream? Close. It's part of the creepy-cool official website for Insomnia (insomniamovie.com), director Christopher Nolan's high-profile follow-up to his art-house hit Memento. Utilizing audio clips from leads Al Pacino (bottom photo, with Hilary Swank) and Robin Williams as well as Insomnia's hypnotic score, the site's 10-minute Flash movie (a virtual epic by Web standards) only hints at the film's story line. Instead, it is meant to ''convey the ambience of the film...[and] the condition of insomnia,'' explains site creative consultant Jonah Nolan (Christopher's younger brother and the mind largely responsible for Memento's own memorable website). Is there any other way to describe the site? ''[It's] like when your mom blindfolded all the kids and put your hand in spaghetti,'' offers the younger Nolan. Uh, we'll stick with your first explanation...