A silk purse created from a sow's ear.

Rating: 8/10 (11 March 2012)

Great plot, truly average screenplay. If you just read the words spoken by the actors involved then you'd find a pretty clichÃ©d movie which the writers have tried to offset by setting it in a highly dramatic landscape.
But... the direction is perfect, the performances are flawless, the cinematography is stunning, the editing is eager bordering on adolescent showiness and the soundtrack is sublime. Nothing to hate here.
Both Pacino and Williams are beautifully and eloquently restrained... these are great performances.
This movie achieves almost greatness through every little nuance in every little detail.
Watch it, of course, it's Christopher Nolan showing he can do more than direct an incredibly complex backward-timelined indie flick and succeed majestically. Thus he got Batman.