Disappointing, but good

Rating: 7/10 (8 September 2010)

US Marshall, Teddy Daniels (Leonardo DiCaprio) is headed to Shutter Island to investigate because of a missing patient on the island, Rachel Solando. Teddy is a veteran World War II soldier, and is messed up from some of the experiences he had there. The hospital refuses to let Teddy have access to the patient's records, making things harder for him and his partner, Chuck Aule (Mark Ruffalo). Soon after arriving on the island a storm hits, so Teddy finds himself stuck on the island for the time being. While Teddy is having serious migraines, he begins to believe something very wrong is going on at the island, and soon starts to fear for everyone's lives on Shutter Island.
I have to be honest here, Shutter Island was pretty disappointing for me. I had read mixed reviews on the film, but heard it was really good, so naturally with a director like Martin Scorsese I had fairly high hopes for the film. But in many ways it did not deliver. The story was interesting, but throughout the first half of the movie the whole thing seemed very random to me, as well as predictable. The second half absolutely saved the movie for me. It started to get much more interesting, and became more of the thriller/horror movie it was supposed to be. However, even with the good direction by one of the greatest directors in history, there was still something missing. I honestly thought one of the biggest problems was the screenplay. It was not but about 15-20 minutes into the movie that I had already figured out the ending.
With that said, there were some very good points to Shutter Island. For example, Leonardo DiCaprio and Mark Ruffalo's acting was brilliant. Everyone seems to be talking about hoe DiCaprio deserves to get an Oscar for his Role in Inception, and While I agree I think he at least deserves a nomination for this movie. I am not a huge Mark Ruffalo fan, but he did a very good job playing the sidekick of Teddy Daniels, the hero to our story.
Overall, Shutter Island packs a few scares in for some people, and has good acting by pretty much everyone, but with a not great screenplay a few things were messed up in the beginning. This was not Martin Scorsese's best film, but for the acting in this film I thought it was good.