Insomnia (2002)
Average Rating: 7.7/10
Reviews Counted: 190
Fresh: 175 | Rotten: 15
Driven by Pacino's performance, Insomnia is a smart and riveting psychological drama.
Average Rating: 7.8/10
Critic Reviews: 44
Fresh: 41 | Rotten: 3
Driven by Pacino's performance, Insomnia is a smart and riveting psychological drama.
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Average Rating: 3.3/5
User Ratings: 99,478
Movie Info
Director Christopher Nolan follows up his breakthrough sophomore film Memento with this remake of a stylish Norwegian thriller. Al Pacino stars as Detective Will Dormer, a Los Angeles Police Department legend who temporarily escapes an internal affairs investigation that may ruin his career by traveling to Nightmute, AK, the remote site of a murder that has the local authorities flummoxed. Along with his partner, Hap Eckhart (Martin Donovan), and the small town's wide-eyed rookie investigator,
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Cast
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Al Pacino
Det. Will Dormer -
Robin Williams
Walter Finch -
Hilary Swank
Ellie Burr -
Maura Tierney
Rachel Clement -
Martin Donovan
Hap Eckhart -
Nicky Katt
Fred Duggar -
Paul Dooley
Chief Charles Nyback -
Larry Holden
Farrell -
Katharine Isabelle
Tanya Francke -
Jay Brazeau
Francis -
Kate Robbins
Woman On The Road -
Paula Shaw
Coroner -
Ian Tracey
Warfield -
Emily Perkins
Girl At Funeral -
Jonathan Jackson
Randy Stetz -
Tasha Simms
Mrs. Connell -
Dean Wray
Ticket Taker -
Ken Kirzinger
Stunt Coordinator -
Kerry Sandomirsky
Trish Eckhart -
James Hutson
Officer #1 -
Malcom Boddington
Principle -
Andrew Campbell
Officer #2 -
Lorne Cardinal
Rich -
Chris Guthior
Uniformed Officer -
Crystal Lowe
Kay Connell -
Oliver "Ole" Zemen
Pilot
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Insomnia Trailer & Photos
All Critics (191) | Top Critics (44) | Fresh (175) | Rotten (15) | DVD (37)
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.
Top CriticWith 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.
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.
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).
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.
A dark and fidgety picture from Christopher Nolan, who made such a splash with Memento.
Christopher Nolan's Insomnia adds 11 minutes to the Norwegian movie of the same name and manages to make everything that was fleeting and tantalizing in the original weighty, literal and dull.
A smart, intricately constructed thriller, the film has far more on its mind than just who done it.
Not as audacious as Memento, Christopher Nolan's first studio feature is nevertheless a confident and intelligent thriller that demonstrates a canny ability to fuse his own concerns with guilt, subjective experience and narrative to a mainstream package.
Christopher Nolan's follow-up to Memento is just as taut and ambiguous as its predecessor and -- arguably -- features better performances from its leading me
This skilfully directed psychodrama from Christopher Nolan proves that hit European movies can be remade successfully.
Christopher Nolan, the promising writer-director behind Following and Memento, makes an elegant and assured transfer to big-budget, star-driven film-making with Insomnia.
Part mystery, part moral dilemma, but all seductively intriguing.
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.
A startlingly good thriller wrapped around a morality tale.
Insomnia is a slow burn, and the European influences are very obvious in both pacing and tone.
An exceptional picture from one of the most gifted British filmmakers to emerge in the past decade.
Audience Reviews for Insomnia
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Movies Like Insomnia
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- Det. Will Dormer: I'm coasting on my laurels, thank you.
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- Det. Will Dormer: Day after day you suck the marrow out of real cops when you never had the balls to become one yourself.
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- Randy Stetz: You're just a prick in a leather jacket. What the fuck do you know?
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- Det. Will Dormer: [phone rings] Dormer here hello.
- Walter Finch: Can't sleep will.
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- Det. Will Dormer: Just let me sleep.
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- Det. Will Dormer: Don't lose your way.
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Foreign Titles
- Insomnia (2002) (CA)
- Insomnio (ES)
