Insomnia

Warner Bros. Pictures | Release Date: May 24, 2002

CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION

78	METASCORE Generally favorable reviews based on 37 Critic Reviews

Positive:

Mixed:

Negative:

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Critic Reviews

Critic score Publication By date

Marjorie Baumgarten

Nolan creates an effective thriller, although he keeps his stylistic pyrotechnics to a minimum. Read full review

Wesley Morris

Has to be appreciated simply for doing its job, for being the only thriller I've seen recently that made me wonder how my knuckles ended up in my mouth. Read full review

Lawrence Toppman

Less gloriously showy than "Memento," but it proves you can still craft fine art under the auspices of a big studio. Read full review

Ted Shen

Pacino is typically excitable but also strangely sad, as if the case could take all he's got; Williams, on the other hand, tries playing against type but still goes over the top. Read full review

Roger Ebert

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 full review

Mark Caro

Smart and well-crafted, and it boasts complex characters, effective star turns and evocative photography of a small Alaskan town in summertime, when the sun never sets. It's a solid Hollywood thriller. Read full review

Lisa Schwarzbaum

Superb psychological thriller. Read full review

David Grove

A good movie, atmospheric and sometimes creepy. It grabs us with the premise and holds our attention and doesn’t let go, right up to the explosive climax. Read full review

John Powers

Nolan gets his two larger-than-life leads playing off each other in the same frame (which is something Michael Mann couldn't pull off in "Heat's" pairing of Pacino and De Niro) and coaxes a melancholy turn from Pacino, an icon of angst whose real strength has always been his capacity for eloquent silence. Read full review

Josh Larsen

Considering this is a remake of a superior 1997 Norwegian film, director Christopher Nolan doesn’t create anything nearly as inventive as his Memento, but at least Insomnia is expertly conventional. Read full review

Kenneth Turan

Insomnia shows an equally welcome ability: a gift of creating intelligent, engrossing popular entertainment. Read full review

Rene Rodriguez

So thoroughly absorbing while it's unfolding that later, when you play the movie back in your head, it's surprising to realize how ordinary it is. That's a testament to Nolan's talent: He's able to make even the hoariest clichés feel fresh. Read full review

New Times (L.A.)Andy Klein

What Nolan does accomplish here that we haven't seen from him before is staging a few horrifyingly effective suspense set pieces -- one of which, in particular, is likely to stay with you for a long time.

Jami Bernard

Pacino is masterful as the sharp-witted, seen-it-all detective.

Peter Rainer

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 full review

100

Lou Lumenick

A rare case of an American remake that actually improves on a European movie. Read full review

David Ansen

It might, however, have been a greater film if its villain were as compelling as its flawed hero. Williams is effectively creepy, but next to Pacino’s rich, multileveled portrait he seems one-note, and one we’ve seen before.

Carrie Rickey

With Insomnia, his third feature, Nolan, 32, has proven himself a precocious master of the thriller, unsettling the audience with a brief image of blood seeping through fabric. Read full review

100

Shawn Levy

About as good a movie as you could have hoped for. Really good. Hole-in-one good. Read full review

James Berardinelli

Under the relentless glare of the Midnight Sun, the only darkness is in the hearts and actions of the characters. Read full review

100

Peter Travers

It's taut, tense and terrific. Read full review

Andrew O'Hehir

Like the best thrillers it dives below the ordered surface of the genre into the coldest waters of the individual soul, where Hitchcock and David Lynch and Dostoyevsky have ventured. Does Christopher Nolan belong in that company? Not quite yet, but he's on the way. Read full review

Mick LaSalle

Haunting psychological drama. Read full review

Sean Axmaker

Despite the cat-and-mouse games between cop and criminal, this is less a battle of wills than one man's battle for his own soul. Nolan bravely treads where few American films dare to delve -- into the world of ambivalence and ambiguity -- and emerges with a compelling portrait. Read full review

David Edelstein

Sensationally made and in patches pretty nerve-jangling. Read full review

Scott Tobias

Nolan reverses the emphasis -- no surprise from the director of a plot-driven film like "Memento" -- but achieves the same end, bringing Hollywood noir under the harsh glare of permanent daylight. Read full review

Rick Groen

In the ongoing case of the fan versus the movies, the evidence suggests that a good policier is damn hard to find. So when you come across one that can boast a decent script, taut direction and a single superb performance, there's no need for prolonged deliberation. Read full review

A.O. Scott

The anomalous proliferation of scenic beauty gives Mr. Nolan irony to play with, and he uses it spectacularly. The director and his gifted cinematographer, Wally Pfister, are clearly turned on by all this wasted beauty. Read full review

100

Mike Clark

A perfect fit between filmmaker (Memento's Christopher Nolan) and material (Norway's same-name psycho-chiller from 1997), this remake gets all there is to get out of a peculiar premise with promise. Read full review

Todd McCarthy

Gripping, highly dramatic thriller that more than confirms the distinctive talent of young Brit helmer Christopher Nolan. Read full review

Dennis Lim

Nolan, withholding master of disorientation in his previous non-linear films, allows far too easy access into the psychic tumult of Al Pacino's cop and Robin Williams's prime suspect. Read full review

Joe Morgenstern

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.

100

Desson Thomson

Something to treasure: a thriller whose style, structure and rhythms are so integrated with the story, you cannot separate them. Read full review