A slick , cool , thrilling , susprising , shocking , well - acted, great suspense crime film from Memento director Christopher Nolan. The story is about a cop , Detective Dormer (Al Pacino) and his partner Detective Eckhart (Martin Donovan) who get sent to Alaska to solve a crime commited by creepy and insane novel writer Walter Finch (Robin Williams). Even with the help of a young Alaska female cop (Hilary Swank) and her partner (Nicky Katt) , this is going to be a hard and an unrestful case to crack for Detective Dormer , hence the title "Insomnia". Not as wonderful as Memento , but hardly anything is. Starring: Al Pacino , Robin Williams , Hilary Swank , Maura Tierney , Martin Donovan , Nicky Katt and Paul Dooley...