AfterChristopher Nolanachieved a career breakthrough with his sophomore feature directorial outing, the 2000 psychological thriller filmMemento, he entered into a relationship with Warner Bros. Pictures, which enabled him to make a smooth transition to big-budget studio filmmaking with the 2002 psychological thrillerInsomnia. Of course, Nolan followedInsomniawith the 2005 origin filmBatman Begins, the first installment in his blockbusterThe Dark Knighttrilogy.
The importance ofInsomniawithin the context ofNolan’s celebrated careercan’t be overstated. While his incomparable talent made his success inevitable, it’s doubtful that the virtually unmatched level of creative and financial freedom he received from Warner Bros. throughout the 2000s would have been as immediately forthcoming ifInsomniahad been a failure. For this reason alone,Nolan is entirely correctin describing Insomnia as being the most underrated film of his glorious career.
Christopher Nolan’s ‘Insomnia’ Is a Superior Remake
Christopher Nolan’sInsomnia, which is a remake ofthe acclaimed 1997 Norwegian filmof the same name, stars Al Pacino as Will Dormer, a tormented Los Angeles homicide detective who travels to the remote town of Nightmute, Alaska, amid a season of perpetual daylight, to investigate the murder of a teenage girl. Dormer arrives in Alaska with the burden of a looming internal affairs investigation, for which his partner, Hap Eckhart, has agreed to cooperate and ostensibly testify against Dormer.
After Dormer accidentally shoots and kills Eckhart during a botched sting operation to catch the killer, Dormer, knowing that his superiors would never believe his accidental killing of Eckhart amid the internal affairs investigation, tries to attach the killing to the killer he’s targeting, Walter Finch, who taunts Dormer with his knowledge of this deception. Finch, who ischillingly played by Robin Williams, blackmails Dormer into framing an innocent suspect for the murders.
Likeall good remakes, Nolan’sInsomniatakes a fresh and interesting approach to the source material instead of becoming a cookie-cutter retread of the 1997 film. In differentiating itself from the 1997 film, Nolan’sInsomniaapplies additional pressure points to Dormer, whose titular condition is exacerbated by his guilt over Eckhart’s killing and Dormer’s own previous transgressions, to the point where the increasingly exhausted Dormer is no longer sure whether Eckhart’s killing was accidental or not. LikeTom Cruise’s imaginativeVanilla Sky, the 2001 remake of the 1997 Spanish thriller filmOpen Your Eyes, one can watch Nolan’sInsomnia, in conjunction with the 1997 original, and see a distinctly different film, especially with the ending.
Warner Bros. Tested Nolan with ‘Insomnia’
As a bridge betweenMementoand Christopher Nolan’s entry into blockbuster-level film-making withBatman Begins,Insomniapresented Nolan with the challenge of proving that he could operate on a much bigger budget, in this case $40 million compared to the $9 million cost ofMemento, and successfully collaborating with major Hollywood stars, in the form of Al Pacino and Robin Williams. Nolan passed this test with flying colors, as whileInsomnia, which grossed nearly $115 million at the worldwide box office, was only a modest box-office success, the remake was a great critical success, as seen with its current 92% Rotten Tomatoes rating, one of the highest ratings of Nolan’s career.
WithInsomnia, the only film for which Nolan isn’t credited as a writer, Nolan made an intense thriller that is also compelling as a character study and as a psychological drama, the same dynamic that applies virtually to the rest of Nolan’s career. Moreover, while the role of Will Dormer in Insomnia undoubtedly represents Pacino’s last great leading film performance, beforePacino transitioned into supporting roles, the typically comedic Williams had never played a villain prior to being cast inInsomniaas second-rate author turned murderer Walter Finch, a precursor toWilliams’ creepy performanceas lonely photo technician Sy Parrish in the 2002 psychological thriller filmOne Hour Photo, which was released theatrically approximately three months afterInsomnia.
‘Insomnia’ Catapulted Nolan and ‘The Dark Knight trilogy’ to Greatness
The commercial and critical success ofInsomniaestablished a baseline for the meteoric trajectory ofthe rest of Nolan’s career, beginning with the onset ofThe Dark Knight trilogy. Throughout the making of this trilogy, and with the adjoining Nolan filmsDunkirk,Inception,Interstellar, andThe Prestige, Warner Bros. gave Nolan virtually unprecedented budgetary and creative independence. This resulted in one of the most successful director-studio partnerships in history. Of course, this nearly 20-year relationship abruptly ended in September 2021, when it was announced that Nolan’s 2023 epic biographical thriller filmOppenheimerwould be distributed and financed by Universal Pictures.
WhileNolan’s relationship with Universal began spectacularlywithOppenheimer, for which Nolan won his first two Academy Awards, and seems certain to continue successfully with his highly anticipated upcoming epic action fantasy filmThe Odyssey, Nolan’s legacy will always be inextricably tied to his spectacular achievements while based at Warner Bros., most especially with The Dark Knight trilogy. Given how vital Insomnia was to the creation ofThe Dark Knight trilogy,Insomniarepresents the definitive touchstone moment in Nolan’s career. Everything that’s happened in Nolan’s career over the past 20 years goes back toInsomnia.
