"Insomnia"

Watching "Insomnia" you see a lot of characteristics from other Christopher Nolan movies. The cinematography  is quite reminiscent of "Memento." The dynamic between Al Pacino and Robin Williams  echoes the Young Man and Cobb in "Following." There are similar principles and ideals between Al Pacino's police detective character and Aaron Eckhart's district attorney character from "The Dark Knight." These similarities may lead one to believe that Mr. Nolan is a one-trick pony. And if that is the case, at least he does his one trick very, very well. Whilst all these things make this movie good, there are two things that stick out most to me that make it better than good. The first is that this may be the greatest acted of all of Christopher Nolan's movies. Al Pacino, Robin Williams, Hilary Swank (yes, I know I questioned her choice before hand and yes, she's still not the best) are all fantastic. Al Pacino by himself is good, but when adding Robin Williams, there's just great chemistry between them. The second is the feeling of claustrophobia. This is a movie that takes place in the vast expanses of Alaska, yet throughout the movie I feel cooped up, closed in, unable to escape the "confined" space of this Alaskan town. This feeling only adds to the tension built by the insomnia suffering Al Pacino. Whilst this is not Christopher Nolan's best, it's like saying it's your least favorite Pixar movie*, or bad pizza; it's still good.

*This was probably more true of Pixar before "Cars 2" and beyond.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0278504/