Vincent Reggiannini reviewedJuly 5, 2025
This is one of Christopher Nolan’s lesser known films, yet it brings with it a haunting surrealism and very subdued performances by both Al Pacino and Robin Williams.
The movie is like a bad dream, which is appropriate because the main character is suffering from a lack of sleep. Compounding the issues of what might be a guilty conscience, and a ruthless Internal Affairs process is the fact that this movie takes place in a town where the sun never sets during its summer months.
Like most of Nolans films time here doesn’t seem to be an issue - it’s like a long, slowly drawn out nightmare as Al Pacino’s character dances between what might be reality, and what might be hallucinations.
Robin Williams is intellectually frightening as a man who writes detective novels so well that he knows the police and what they look for, and muddled in this serious interaction between Williams and the police is Pacino’s crushing guilty conscience. The pressure slowly mounts as the world around both men close in around them.
They are both running in their dreams but neither getting away from, or getting closer to a resolution to this small town’s first major homicide.
The music is eerie, the landscape is achingly beautiful and Nolan masterfully crafts an environment that is both looming and overwhelming as these two men match whits and test each others’ limits. How far will either of them go to win this battle? What will suffer as a result?
If you are a fan of either Hillary Swank, Al Pacino, Robin Williams or Christopher Nolan you owe it to yourself to watch this.