Entertainment
Christopher Nolan’s Forgotten Thriller Has a Performance That Makes It Essential Viewing
When people rank Christopher Nolan‘s filmography, Insomnia almost always ends up near the bottom. It’s not because it’s a bad movie — far from it, actually. It’s just that it sits in the shadows of cultural juggernauts like The Dark Knight, Inception, Interstellar, and Oppenheimer. What’s more, it’s the only feature that Nolan directed but didn’t write, and one of the few films in his catalog that’s a straightforward remake. In other words, it’s not exactly what comes to mind when someone brings up the subgenre that is Nolan films.
That’s unfortunate, because Insomnia deserves far more attention than it gets. While it lacks the time-bending puzzles and blockbuster spectacle that would go on to define the most entertaining films of Nolan’s career, it’s still an incredibly effective psychological thriller anchored by one of the finest performances of star Al Pacino‘s career. Arriving between the actor’s larger-than-life ’90s classics and his much less notable 2000s projects, Insomnia finds Pacino in a real sweet spot: He’s in an unusually restrained register here, turning in a nuanced portrait of guilt, exhaustion, and moral compromise that remains one of his most underrated performances to date.
An Internally Conflicted Al Pacino Carries ‘Insomnia’
Based on the acclaimed 1997 Norwegian thriller of the same name, Insomnia follows Los Angeles homicide detective Will Dormer (Pacino) as he travels to Nightmute, Alaska to investigate the murder of a teenage girl. The case quickly spirals soon after his arrival: Dormer accidentally shoots his longtime partner during a pursuit through some dense coastal fog. Rather than confess the truth, Dormer lets everyone believe the girl’s killer pulled the trigger.
That single split-second decision takes Insomnia from a by-the-book murder mystery to a psychological character study not unlike David Fincher‘s Se7en. It’s a part that needs more subtlety than spectacle, and — somewhat surprisingly, given his hammiest heights — Pacino delivers exactly that. He comes off as the most exhausted detective of all time, stumbling through the investigation with bloodshot eyes, bad judgment, and increasing paranoia. It’s incredibly convincing, and remains one of the best things he’s ever done.
And Pacino isn’t the only actor working against type. Robin Williams soon shows up as murderer Walter Finch, at a time when the star was still mostly associated with broad comedies and heartfelt dramas. (Another Williams-led psychological thriller, One Hour Photo, would come out later that year.) Our expectations make his turn as a soft-spoken killer even more genuinely unsettling. It’s exactly the right thing to bounce off of Pacino’s performance: two deeply flawed men attempting to rationalize their actions and excuse their moral failures.
‘Insomnia’ Deserves a Better Reputation, If Just for Pacino’s Performance
As far as critical consensus goes, Insomnia was hardly a disappointment. It earned strong reviews upon release, with critics praising both Pacino’s and Williams’ performances. Even to this day, it remains one of Nolan’s best-reviewed films: 92% on Rotten Tomatoes, 78 on Metacritic. Nolan himself has recognized it as the most underrated movie he’s made. And yet… Insomnia still continues to be overshadowed by everything that came afterward.
Given the course Nolan’s career would take after 2002, it’s not hard to see why this movie gets less attention than the rest of his filmography. Nolan would go on to reinvent the superhero blockbuster, turn high-concept originals into major box office events, and eventually win the Academy Award for Best Director. Compared to what came next for him, a relatively straightforward psychological thriller would naturally get overlooked. That doesn’t make it any easier to justify, though.
Revisiting Insomnia today, you’ll find a film that’s still remarkably effective in its own right. Sure, it’s not Nolan’s flashiest or most “epic” work, but it’s absolutely one of his most mature. (Can you imagine Nolan putting out something like this today?) More importantly, it’s some of Pacino’s best work. If one can be so bold, he wouldn’t turn in anything this great again until his cameo in Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood and his part as Jimmy Hoffa in The Irishman, both 17 years later in 2019. That’s reason enough to include this title in your next marathon of Nolan rewatches.
- Release Date
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May 24, 2002
- Runtime
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118 Minutes
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