Few modern directors have had the strong critical success that Christopher Nolan has found in the past three decades. Of course, there have been lower moments – all of “The Dark Knight Rises”, some would say, or at any time that he tried to write a woman outside of “Interstellar” – but it is also impossible to challenge the number of sure. “Inception”, “Memento”, “Oppenheimer”, “The Prestige”, “The Dark Knight”, “Dunkirk”, the list is growing again and again.
Although “The Dark Knight Rises” and “Tenet” are probably the most polarizing films in Nolan, none holds its lowest audience score on IMDB. This “honor” belongs to one of his first films: “Insomnia” in 2002. A remake of the Norwegian film of 1997 of the same name, “Insomnia” is a thriller of psychological crime with Al Pacino, Robin Williams and Hilary Swank. However, despite this solid nucleus cast, it is the most classified film in Nolan’s filmography on IMDB, with an average of 7.2 user score.
For most directors, it would be a fairly decent number. And in truth, the title of “worst” obscures the greatness of one of Nolan’s least considered projects. “Insomnia” may not be as tight as “Memento” or as big as the director’s subsequent films, but it is a tense, of course and wonderfully played thriller that is really worth revisiting more than 20 years later-especially if you consider yourself a fan of Nolan’s modern work.
What does Christopher Nolan’s insomnia concern?
In “Insomnia”, Pacino plays Will Dormer, a detective LAPD who, with his partner, is sent to help an investigation into the murder in the city of Nightmute in Alaska. Due to the geographic location of the city, it exists in broad daylight during Dormer’s stay, which makes it difficult to sleep. While continuing a suspect in the case through a misty forest, Dormer accidentally draws and kills his partner, who had recently informed him of his testimony plans against Dormer in an invested investigation into internal affairs.
This complicated scenario leads Dormer to supervise the original suspect of murder for the murder of his partner. From there, his sleep worsens and the story becomes more and more delicious. Williams stands out, as he often does, as the author of the crime Walter Finch, who becomes involved during the investigation.
If you like murder shows like “Broadchurch” or “The Killing”, you are a fan of Nolan thrillers in general, or you just like to watch big players chew the landscape, “Insomnia” is worth it. Although this is not the most unique or most complex film of Nolan never made, it is a fun and tight walk with a few moments off competition. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film actually holds a much more impressive overall critical score of 92% – higher than those of “Tenet”, “The Dark Knight Rises”, “The Prestige”, “Inception”, and even “Interstellar”. Peter Bradshaw of the Guardian even gave the film a perfect 5/5 in 2002, the appellant “a magnificent thriller of white-black”. So, by this metric, it is in fact one of the Nolan more Successful films.
Why is insomnia not as famous as Nolan’s other films?
“Insomnia” exists in a strange place in Nolan’s filmography. It never made the brand that “Memento” did before him, but he is also overshadowed by his next film, “Batman Begins”, which began to transform the director into superstar. Even “next” in 1998, his first feature film, has maintained a certain relevance in recent years because it is Nolan’s first full film.
A large part of the complex narrative deception, the aesthetics and obscures of characters of “insomnia” are developed in more detail in subsequent films such as “Prestige” or “Inception”. And since the director has become somewhat synonymous with Imax and the show of the production of modern success films, there is not so much interest for a film of him which keeps things so silent and close to the soil.
That said, if “Insomnia” is your least classified film on IMDB, you do well. These days, it is probably the most remarkable for the twinning of Pacino and Williams – two stars in different cinema sectors which do work disturbing together here during the third release of Nolan. Nolan himself even called “Insomnia” his most underestimated film while speaking with the author Tom Shone for his 2020 book “The Nolan Variations”.
“Of all the films I made, it is most downright or most comfortably in the genre I was trying to make,” said Nolan. “It doesn’t really challenge the genre, and that’s what people expect from other films I have made. But I think the film is very well. It is not really for me, but from time to time I meet a filmmaker and it is actually the film that interests them or what to talk about.” He also noted that it was a project that will always be close and dear to his heart, adding that he is “very proud of the film”.
