A cartoonlike dystopian by a director of much better films.

Rating: 6/10 (16 June 2015)

'Shutter Island' is a Martin Scorsese film about a federal officer, played by Leonardo DiCaprio, who visits a high-security hospital for the criminally insane, and this facility is located on a remote island. This setting immediately establishes a feeling of bleakness, isolation and dystopia, which amplifies greatly as 'Shutter Island' progresses. I think that Scorsese's maintenance of the grim atmosphere is one of the strongest qualities of the film, but this hard exterior belies the hollow psychology of 'Shutter Island'. The dark exploration of the mind doesn't hold a candle to 'Taxi Driver', nor do the twists live up to 'The Departed'. I felt as though the portrayal of insanity in 'Shutter Island' was a little too cartoonlike, seeming to resemble something you'd find in Gotham City. This discredits the film, in my opinion, and makes 'Shutter Island' feel very hollow and superficial at times. There are one or two satisfying twists throughout the film, but I don't think that they sufficiently compensate for the tedium of the first half. DiCaprio's objectives in the film seem ambiguous at times, and, combined with the barrage of flashbacks and hallucinations, 'Shutter Island' often feels like a video game played inattentively. The film isn't a disaster, though, as the editing is very enjoyable at times, and Scorsese's creation of the cold, dystopian landscape has to be commended. I just wish that this film was a little more 'One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest' or 'The Silence of the Lambs', and a little less 'Batman: Arkham Asylum'.