Insomnia 2002

Glenn Lovell, San Jose Mercury News: Proves the best (read: most unsettling) of its type since The Pledge. Read more

Wesley Morris, Boston Globe: It's a psychological thriller with actual thrills and actual psychology. Read more

Terry Lawson, Detroit Free Press: Nolan has proved that he's as adept with a straightforward and well-plotted thriller as he is with a idiosyncratic, ingenious one. Read more

Rene Rodriguez, Miami Herald: Proves the 32-year-old Nolan is the real deal, a gifted storyteller who knows how to use style, mood and composition to illustrate his characters' inner lives along with their actions. Read more

Richard Roeper, Ebert & Roeper: Insomnia is based on a 1997 Norwegian film, and though there are some key plot differences, the elements that made the original so memorable remain. Read more

Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times: Seitz's script sticks closely to the original, but Nolan has had no trouble using a variety of skills to make the material his own. Read more

Jay Boyar, Orlando Sentinel: The acting alone is worth the price of admission. Read more

Carrie Rickey, Philadelphia Inquirer: With Insomnia, his third feature, Nolan, 32, has proven himself a precocious master of the thriller. Read more

David Germain, Associated Press: The highlight is Pacino, who gives his best performance in years. Read more

Moira MacDonald, Seattle Times: Pacino, his creased face looking like it's been aged in a smokehouse, is wonderfully bleary as the increasingly confused Dormer. Read more

Paul Tatara, CNN.com: Nolan is a craftsman who joins the ranks of Steven Soderbergh, David O. Russell, Curtis Hanson, and M. Night Shyamalan as an individual voice working within the Hollywood system. Read more

Elvis Mitchell, New York Times: Intensely sharp-witted remake of the noir thriller Insomnia. Read more

Jan Stuart, Newsday: That rare instance where Hollywood improves upon a movie from foreign soil. Read more

Lou Lumenick, New York Post: A four-course gourmet alternative to summer popcorn flicks, serving up the meatiest performances Al Pacino and Robin Williams have given in many years. Read more

Rex Reed, New York Observer: Insomnia is not my kind of arsenic, but it's so well-made and enigmatic I liked it anyway. Read more

Joe Morgenstern, Wall Street Journal: 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. Read more

Eleanor Ringel Gillespie, Atlanta Journal-Constitution: A deftly entertaining film, smartly played and smartly directed. Read more

Scott Tobias, AV Club: 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. Read more

Ted Shen, Chicago Reader: 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). Read more

Mark Caro, Chicago Tribune: It's a crafty story told with more style and gray areas than your average thriller. Read more

Eric Harrison, Houston Chronicle: It's gripping entertainment in a popular vein -- the police procedural -- that nevertheless follows no preconceived formulas. Read more

Steven Rosen, Denver Post: Nolan and cinematographer Wally Pfister know how to mix riveting action with psychological drama. Read more

Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly: [Nolan] is a filmmaker in full control of mood, tone, and pacing, to whom actors as wildly different as Pacino and Williams can entrust their best instincts, rather than their showiest. Read more

Philip Wuntch, Dallas Morning News: It proves that both Al Pacino and Robin Williams really can act without overacting. It also shows that director Christopher Nolan has a life after Memento. Read more

John Powers, L.A. Weekly: In the world of Christopher Nolan, memory is still as treacherous as nitroglycerin. Read more

Anthony Lane, New Yorker: A dark and fidgety picture from Christopher Nolan, who made such a splash with Memento. Read more

Peter Rainer, New York Magazine/Vulture: The best thing about Insomnia is that despite director Christopher Nolan's soft spot for moody-blues obfuscation, he has the good sense to keep his star in practically every shot. Read more

Jami Bernard, New York Daily News: 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. Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: Insomnia does not become one of those rare remakes to eclipse the original, but it doesn't disgrace it, either. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: Unlike most remakes, the Nolan Insomnia is not a pale retread, but a re-examination of the material, like a new production of a good play. Read more

Peter Travers, Rolling Stone: Thoughtful, gripping and steeped in action that defines character. Read more

Andrew O'Hehir, Salon.com: Here's proof that it's still possible to make pop-oriented yet personal movies with an A-list cast and a zillion bucks. Read more

Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle: A haunting psychological drama. Read more

David Edelstein, Slate: 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. Read more

Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune: Like Memento, it invites viewing over and over again. Read more

David Ansen, Newsweek: 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. Read more

Rick Groen, Globe and Mail: When all else is said and done, Insomnia runs on the pure adrenalin of Pacino's performance. Read more

Peter Howell, Toronto Star: Continually challenges perceptions of guilt and innocence, of good guys and bad, and asks us whether a noble end can justify evil means. Read more

Richard Schickel, TIME Magazine: 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. Read more

Geoff Andrew, Time Out: Despite its linear storyline, the film is very recognisably the work of the sharp, probing intelligence that gave us Following and Memento. Read more

Mike Clark, USA Today: This remake gets all there is to get out of a peculiar premise with promise: Al Pacino loathing Robin Williams. Read more

Todd McCarthy, Variety: 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. Read more

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

Desson Thomson, Washington Post: A thriller whose style, structure and rhythms are so integrated with the story, you cannot separate them. Read more

Stephen Hunter, Washington Post: You see Robin Williams and psycho killer, and you think, hmmmmm. You see the movie and you think, zzzzzzzzz. Read more