Jump to ratings and reviews
Rate this book

Insomnia

Rate this book
A pair of L.A. detectives are called to Alaska to help investigate the methodical death of a teen girl. Things take a turn for the worst when one of the cops, already under the scrutiny of Internal Affairs, accidentally kills his partner and then covers it up. Unfortunately, the killer saw the cop kill his partner and now, he's blackmailing the cop to help the killer get away with the original girl's murder.

Published September 28, 2010

14 people want to read

About the author

Christopher Nolan

34 books465 followers
Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.

Christopher Jonathan James Nolan (born July 30, 1970) is a British-American film director, screenwriter and producer. He is known for writing and directing such critically acclaimed films as Memento (2000), the remake Insomnia (2002), the film adaptation The Prestige (2006), Inception (2010), and rebooting the Batman film franchise. The latter made him the second most commercially successful British director in recent years, behind David Yates. Nolan is the founder of the production company Syncopy Films.

He often collaborates with his wife, producer Emma Thomas, and his brother, screenwriter Jonathan Nolan, as well as cinematographer Wally Pfister, film editor Lee Smith, composers David Julyan and Hans Zimmer, special effects coordinator Chris Corbould, and actors Christian Bale and Michael Caine.

Nolan often casts the same actors in different films. Christian Bale, Michael Caine, Russ Fega, Cillian Murphy and Larry Holden are among his more frequent acting collaborators.

Nolan's wife Emma Thomas has produced most of his films, with the exception of Memento and Insomnia. Lee Smith has been Nolan's editor since Batman Begins, with Dody Dorn editing Memento and Insomnia. Wally Pfister has served as cinematographer for all of Nolan's films starting with Memento. David Julyan composed music for Following, Memento, Insomnia, and The Prestige, while Hans Zimmer provided music for Batman Begins, The Dark Knight, and Inception.

Ratings & Reviews

What do you think?
Rate this book

Friends & Following

Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!

Community Reviews

5 stars
0 (0%)
4 stars
3 (60%)
3 stars
2 (40%)
2 stars
0 (0%)
1 star
0 (0%)
Displaying 1 of 1 review
Profile Image for Realini Ionescu.
4,158 reviews21 followers
June 24, 2025
Insomnia by Christopher Nolan – perhaps the top rated director of this moment, due to the massive success of Oppenheimer and some of his other hits, The Dark Knight among them – those motion pictures are reviewed on my blog – so this is a plug – together with hundreds of the GOAT books, but the best you get is probably https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/20...



8 out of 10

Oppenheimer https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/20... is the overwhelming success of the past years, I am sorry, but entertaining as Anora is, it does not compare with the much better, longer and deeper film about the scientist who invented the atomic bomb

He was not working along, it was a complex process, and that ads to the majesty of the motion picture, which has this gravity, a crucial philosophical question, it is a sine qua non of our times, when Iran is close to getting nuclear weapons to put on its missiles, and then Israel will be facing extinction, there is North Korea

- And so much more on this subject

Ergo, Insomnia is not on the same level, we do not talk about the future of human kind, indeed, if there is one, once nuclear Armageddon is initiated – a fabulous movie on the topic is https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/20... Dr. Strangelove, which is also a hilarious comedy
I have watched some of Insomnia the other day, after seeing it years back, soon after it has opened in theaters, and though it is different from the common detective film, I was not thrilled, mainly because I think Al Pacino was not outstanding, as we could see him in say Godfather II, or I for that matter, he is decent, but not great here

Admittedly, this cinephile has weird, peculiar views, not to say wrong, flawed ones – he does not see Scent of a Woman as the fantastic production, with the stupendous performance that others keep referring to, he did get the Academy Award for that one – hence, if I did not like that blind colonel, imagine what I think about

- Insomnia

Granted, the thespian is not over the top, as he could be – he has always been for me, over the past, what, fifteen, maybe 25 years? – but there is this note of falsity, he is like a caricature of himself sometimes – I have read about him in Adventures in The Screen Trade https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/20... and was not pleased by the facts
Detectives Will Dormer aka Al Pacino and Hap Eckhart arrive in this small town in Alaska to help in the investigation of the murder of a young girl, but the situation is complicated very quickly – they go to see the body, the experienced Dormer looks at the fingers, observing the nails have been cut and a few more details

But then, he just forgets the important, he wants to meet the boyfriend at school, only they tell him it is ten o’clock at…night, yes, there is light, but that is because it never gets dark, this time of the year, this being far in the north and all that, on the one hand, maybe this wise fellow should have known this fact, but…

- Maybe it highlights the fact that he is human, and makes mistakes, one so huge, he kills his partner by mistake, which is regrettable, only the fact that he wants to, and does hide the truth is much more serious…

Now for my standard closing of the note with a question, and invitation – maybe you have a good idea on how we could make more than a million dollars with this https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/20... – as it is, this is a unique technique, which we could promote, sell, open the Oscars show with or something and then make lots of money together, if you have the how, I have the product, I just do not know how to get the befits from it, other than the exercise per se

There is also the small matter of working for AT&T – this huge company asked me to be its Representative for Romania and Bulgaria, on the Calling Card side, which meant sailing into the Black Sea wo meet the US Navy ships, travelling to Sofia, a lot of activity, using my mother’s two bedrooms flat as office and warehouse, all for the grand total of $250, raised after a lot of persuasion to the staggering $400…with retirement ahead, there are no benefits, nothing…it is a longer story, but if you can help get the mastodont to pay some dues, or have an idea how it can happen, let me know

As for my role in the Revolution that killed Ceausescu, a smaller Mao, there it is http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/03/r...

Some favorite quotes from To The Hermitage and other works

‘Fiction is infinitely preferable to real life...As long as you avoid the books of Kafka or Beckett, the everlasting plot of fiction has fewer futile experiences than the careless plot of reality...Fiction's people are fuller, deeper, cleverer, more moving than those in real life…Its actions are more intricate, illuminating, noble, profound…There are many more dramas, climaxes, romantic fulfillment, twists, turns, gratified resolutions…Unlike reality, all of this you can experience without leaving the house or even getting out of bed…What's more, books are a form of intelligent human greatness, as stories are a higher order of sense…As random life is to destiny, so stories are to great authors, who provided us with some of the highest pleasures and the most wonderful mystifications we can find…Few stories are greater than Anna Karenina, that wise epic by an often foolish author…’
Displaying 1 of 1 review

Can't find what you're looking for?

Get help and learn more about the design.