Christopher Nolan has directed 12 feature films. The Oscar winner has written 11 of those 12 scripts. Some of Nolan’s works, like The Dark Knight and Oppenheimer, are on the list of the greatest movies of the 21st century. The lone selection on Nolan’s resume where he didn’t receive a screenwriting credit happens to be his most underrated film. At least that’s what he believes.
The movie in question is Insomnia, a 2002 thriller written by Hillary Seitz starring Al Pacino and Robin Williams. In The Nolan Variations by Tom Shone, Nolan expressed his affinity for Insomnia and explained why it served such a pivotal role in his young career.
“I’m very proud of the film. I think, of all my films, it’s probably the most underrated. […] The reality is it’s one of my most personal films in terms of what it was to make it,” Nolan said. “It was a very vivid time in my life. It was my first studio film, I was on location, it was the first time I’d worked with huge movie stars. […] That’s not really for me to say, but every now and again I meet a filmmaker and that’s actually the film that they’re interested in or want to talk about. Yeah, very proud of the film.”
Serving as a remake of the 1997 Norwegian film of the same name, Insomnia follows Will Dormer (Pacino), an LAPD detective sent to Nightmute, Alaska, to investigate the murder of a teenage girl. The suspect, Walter Finch (Williams), witnesses Dormer accidentally kill a fellow police officer. The cat-and-mouse game between Dormer and Finch intensifies when each man tries to cover up their mistakes and avoid prosecution.
Released in May 2002, Insomnia received critical acclaim, with many praising the performances by Pacino and Williams. Made on a $46 million budget, Insomnia finished its theatrical run with a worldwide gross of $113 million.
After Insomnia, Nolan entered the world of superheroes in 2005’s Batman Begins, which kicked off his Dark Knight films, one of the most celebrated trilogies ever.
