8. Insomnia (2002)
Its telling of his greatness that Insomnia is Nolans weakest film, yet is far from a bad one. Nolans third feature, more obviously a crime thriller than his others, places bottom on this list purely because everything else is so damned perfect. A remake of a Norwegian thriller, Insomnia tells the story of an LAPD detective who heads up to an Alaskan town to investigate the murder of a teenage girl. With the small town setting, a visiting agent and a lot of logs about its quite easy to draw parallels with Twin Peaks; the story is even kicked into motion by a teenagers murder. This comparison hurts the film as it does anything compared to David Lynchs surreal masterpiece, but the similarities are mainly superficial Insomnia is more psychological than supernatural. The main conceit Nightmute is so northern that there can be continuous daylight for days is an interesting one and is explored well. The strongest elements of the film involve Pachinos struggle with insomnia and the eventual revelation it isnt the perpetual daylight forcing sleep from him, but the guilt from his previous actions comes as a proper shock thanks to the deftness with which Nolan has pushed us into his viewpoint. As an actual crime thriller, the film isn't as strong. Despite being driven by the dual threat of a revelation of corruption and Robin Williams admittedly great performance as a psychotic killer it never fully amps up the tension. Nolan has gone on the make films that balance multiple elements perfectly, but here they dont quite gel. Yet it still remains worth seeing thanks to its stellar representation of the sleeping disorder.