From time to time Hollywood mines European film for material. Two Norwegian films were remade in the US in the 90s and early 00s. One, Christopher Nolan's Insomnia, turned out quite a good Hollywood thriller; the other, Jim Wilson's Head Above Water, a forgettable movie-of-the-week. Ida Jahr attempts in this book, through analyzing the changes made to the Norwegian originals, to find out what Nolan did right and what Wilson did wrong.