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Christopher Nolan's first two films, the low-budget black-and-white "Following" and the LA-set "Memento", marked the young British director as a film maker of rare promise. The psychological thriller "Insomnia", his first film for a major Hollywood studio, confirms his exceptional talent.

"Insomnia" is a remake of a 1997 Norwegian film and, although it follows the original fairly closely, it bears Nolan's stamp throughout.

Al Pacino plays Will Dormer, a veteran LAPD detective who travels with his younger partner Hap (Donovan) to a small Alaskan town to investigate the murder a 17-year-old girl.

But the big-city cop is put off his stride by the region's perpetual daylight - it is the season of the midnight sun. However hard he tries, he cannot sleep. It doesn't help that a whiff of corruption hangs about him - back home he is the subject of an internal affairs investigation which could end his career.

Dormers investigations lead him to reclusive novelist Walter Finch (Williams). On a rocky, fog-wreathed beach, a stakeout goes awry and the wrong person is shot. Each now knowing a truth about the other, Dormer and Finch enter a dangerous game of cat-and-mouse.

Pacino is brilliant as the sleep-deprived Dormer, his increasing weariness as much existential as it is physical. Equally good is Robin Williams in an uncharacteristic role as the cunning novelist Walter Finch, while Hilary Swank makes up for the awful "Affair of the Necklace" as the eager-beaver local cop who initially hero-worships Dormer but is astute enough to spot his fallibility.

Nolan directs his stars with assurance and the film's far north setting isn't just a pretty backdrop - Alaska's perversely claustrophobic wide-open spaces provide a mirror to Dormer's deteriorating mental state.

"Insomnia" is reminiscent of Hitchcock in the way Nolan ratchets up the suspense and in its exploration of the transference of guilt. Despite the omnipresent sunlight, as far as morality is concerned, the film is concerned with subtle, shifting shades of grey.