A genre film that doesn't work quite as well as Cape Fear

Rating: 7/10 (25 April 2010)

Martin Scorsese obviously had a great time making this film an adaptation of the novel by Dennis Lehane. The film has a haunting and suspenseful tone throughout which fits perfectly with its psychological thriller/film noir tone. Set in the 1950s Leonardo DiCaprio and Mark Ruffalo are investigating the disappearance of a prisoner from Shutter Island. It is a classic mystery set up with the prisoner having escaped from a locked room within this institution for the criminally insane and disappeared. Of course not all is as it seems and there are many twists and turns throughout the film.
The two leads are on good form as new partners working together for the first time on what appears to be an unsolvable mystery. There is also good supporting work from Ben Kingsley, Max Von Sydow and many others in more minor roles. However despite universally good performances the film does not seem to be able to make the plot as exciting as it should be, having read Dennis Lehane's novel I was gripped from very early on and while Shutter Island is never boring sometimes it does not hold your attention as you feel it should, indeed some of the revelations and climatic scenes are a little underwhelming, I presume they would have been more effective had I not known what was going to happen and I am looking forward to revisiting this film as I think it warrants a reevaluation on my part.
Despite these issues there are some extremely powerful scenes where DiCaprio remembers his time in world war II and when he dreams of his late wife. These dream sequences in particular are shot fantastically by Scorsese and are so vivid that they are some of the best in the film. There is one scene near the end that is particularly powerful even for me knowing what I knew going in, the actors did a fantastic job. Perhaps I would have appreciated Shutter Island more had it come from another director but from Scorsese, even in a genre film, I expect a little more.