Rating: 5/5

Three-Word Summary: Cop can’t sleep

The closer you get to either of the global poles, the more erratic the length of a day gets. For instance, in parts of northern Alaska, it can stay light for nearly all day during the summer, while remaining dark most of the winter.

This unending daylight is a powerful plot point in one of Christopher Nolan‘s first films, Insomnia.

LAPD Detective Will Dormer (Al Pacino) and his partner travel north to Alaska to aid in the investigation of a teen girl’s murder. However, things begin to unravel when Dormer accidentally kills his partner in pursuit of a suspect and has no choice but to cover it up.

The story shifts from hunting the girl’s murderer to trying to cover up another death. Meanwhile, Dormer is unable to sleep because of the unending daylight. That, and the haunting thought that perhaps his partner’s death wasn’t much of an accident after all.

The film draws parallels between the legendary detective and the killer he is hunting. Both men try to find ways to justify the wrongs they have done in their past. The more that Dormer tries to fight these comparisons, the deeper he sinks into his own insomnia.

Insomnia is a thrilling and dark film noir, which is an ironic genre considering the fact that it never actually gets dark outside. Years before the world saw Memento, Inception or the Dark Knight trilogy, Nolan delivered a masterpiece that would begin his legacy as one of the best film directors of this generation.