Dormer has a weariness that Pacino wears perfectly, always finding some new depth to his exhaustion and despair without ever being a sleepy presence on screen.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Apr 24, 2020

Insomnia is not so much about the murder mystery as it is about Will's internal struggle with what's right and what's possibly okay.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Aug 25, 2014

The film represents a triumph of atmosphere over a none-too-mysterious mystery. Which is to say that Nolan makes you feel the end-of-the-earth bleakness of his setting, makes you feel the way it can discombobulate people once they internalize it.

| Aug 5, 2013

With a run-of-the-mill bad-guy actor playing chief suspect Walter Finch, the movie might have tipped too far Pacino's way. But Robin Williams is a shockingly effective counterweight.

| Aug 5, 2013

Scene by scene, screenwriter Hillary Seitz follows director Erik Skjoldbjaerg's original closely, but this remake deepens and improves upon the Norwegian film by giving Dormer a more complex relationship with Eckhart.

| Aug 5, 2013

Nolan uses visual pyrotechnics to pump up the tension and add to Pacino's sense of disorientation, but the feeling he evokes isn't as forlorn, creepy, or ambiguous as in the original (though the mountain wilderness is just as forbidding).

| Aug 5, 2013

This one is nowhere near as original -- it's a flawed remake of a fine first feature from Norway -- but Insomnia still stands on its own as a thriller with brains and scenic beauty.

| Aug 5, 2013

A dark and fidgety picture from Christopher Nolan, who made such a splash with Memento.

| Aug 5, 2013

As Pacino endures day after day without a wink of sleep, Insomnia skillfully turns the screws, delving further into his troubled mind as it's haunted by past and present sins, as well as deceptive visions that seem to bleed out of his conscience.

Full Review | Aug 5, 2013

The highlight is Pacino, who gives his best performance in years.

Full Review | Aug 5, 2013

Despite its linear storyline, the film is very recognisably the work of the sharp, probing intelligence that gave us Following and Memento.

| Apr 5, 2012

While it may not be as stylistically idiosyncratic as Memento Insomnia is a gripping, highly dramatic thriller that more than confirms the distinctive talent of young Brit helmer Christopher Nolan.

Full Review | Apr 5, 2012

Christopher Nolan's impressive third film, after Following and Memento, deploys the idea of an all-pervasive light to befuddle the deductive process and expose the corruption of the soul.

| Dec 15, 2003

Pacino is on world-beating form and Williams delivers his best straight performance yet.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Jun 20, 2003

This could this be The Big Sleep for a new generation.

| Original Score: 5/5 | Oct 2, 2002

Pacino is brilliant as the sleep-deprived Dormer, his increasing weariness as much existential as it is physical.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Aug 20, 2002

It's a crafty story told with more style and gray areas than your average thriller.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Jul 20, 2002

Insomnia is not my kind of arsenic, but it's so well-made and enigmatic I liked it anyway.

| May 30, 2002

The Hollywood version (which is half an hour longer) transports the action to Alaska, and works up a respectable level of bleary-eyed paranoia.

Full Review | May 28, 2002

Nolan proves that he can cross swords with the best of them and helm a more traditionally plotted popcorn thriller while surrendering little of his intellectual rigor or creative composure.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | May 26, 2002