"A good cop can't sleep because he's missing a piece of the puzzle. And a bad cop can't sleep because his conscience won't let him."

Rating: 9/10 (2 July 2014)

Nolan seems like he's a director who can do no wrong. Every film he's done has been a unique work with beautiful directing and complex scripting constantly trying to be different. Insomnia is no exception demonstrating once again why Nolan is one of the masters of modern cinema.
Al Pacino leads as the veteran cop who is sent to an isolated town to investigate a child's murder with his partner. During this he is under investigation from internal affairs who his partner may be cooperating with. The pressure of this begins to take hold as the case goes on, trying to hide all his secrets.
Whilst it was not written by Nolan, it is a story well suited for him to handle. Just like any Nolan film, it tackles meaningful themes of morality and guilt throughout with Pacino's veteran cop becoming conflicted on his own beliefs.
Once again Pacino demonstrates why he is one of the best actors, with his character becoming more worn down as the film goes on. The look of his eyes alone show how exhausted he is and that the lies have taken his life away.
Though as impressive as Pacino was, Williams is probably the biggest surprise of the film giving a chilling portrait of a serial killer who steals the show whenever he's on screen. It's very different to his usual role, but he plays it incredibly with an eerily calm demeanour and incredible dialogue delivery giving a memorable portrait of a killer.
The killer works as an effective reflection of the veteran cop for both of them are trying to hide their own lies. The only difference being that whilst Pacino feels guilt for his lies and actions, the killer feels none.
Insomnia is a masterpiece in filmmaking from start to finish. The directing, performances and writing come together with everyone involved in the film giving it their A game.