Christopher Nolan’s first major studio movie—and, according to the man himself, his most underrated film—was this superb remake of the 1997 Norwegian thriller about an embattled, sleep-deprived cop pursuing a killer in a small arctic town where the sun never sets.
Al Pacino stars as Los Angeles detective Will Dormer who, while under the scrutiny of an Internal Affairs investigation back home, travels with his partner (Martin Donovan) to a fishing village in Alaska, where they’ve been asked to assist local police in investigating the murder of a 17-year-old girl. The trail eventually winds its way to a local crime fiction writer, Walter Finch (Robin Williams, who, along with his work in ONE HOUR PHOTO, had one heck of a standout year). Finch just happens to have witnessed Dormer committing an ethically compromised act in the line of duty and wants to talk blackmail. On top of that, Dormer has to contend with the increasingly tenuous grasp he has on his own sanity due to a severe lack of sleep, along with a local officer (Hilary Swank) tasked to investigate his actions.
Featuring Pacino and Williams in their best, most restrained performances in at least a decade, INSOMNIA finds Nolan at ease working with big stars and with his first big budget, without sacrificing any of his abiding interest in psychologically scarred protagonists and the complex workings of the human mind.