Artistic curlicues decorate a thin, derivative script...

Rating: 6/10 (15 March 2011)

Once director Martin Scorsese attained widespread acceptance from moviegoers (and mainstream critics) with the massive commercial success of "Cape Fear" in 1991, he quickly turned into a 'blockbuster' filmmaker, one who had his pick of top-rank collaborators. The Scorsese name became a brand--like Spielberg's--however, the movies he has chosen to work on since do not always echo the interests of the young, raw Scorsese. With "Shutter Island", an adaptation of a novel by Dennis Lehane, the stamp of Scorsese becomes interchangeable with that of Shyamalan, De Palma, Polanski...even the ghost of Stanley Kubrick, whose "The Shining" seems to be an inspirational starting point for this thin, shuddery yarn. Leonard DiCaprio plays a U.S. Federal Marshal in 1954 investigating the disappearance of a female mental patient from a locked-down asylum in the Boston Harbor. Elements of other films keep turning up in Laeta Kalogridis' poor script, which incorporates (at various intervals) concentration camp detail with a triple homicide that is both exploitative and distasteful. The large cast is solid, for the most part--Scorsese has retained his uncanny ability to bring out the best in his actors--though I'm not sure how deeply DiCaprio is feeling his role. His frequent scowl doesn't reveal anything but a petulant nature, which, coupled with his youthful appearance, doesn't lend much conviction to a character who is alternately a soldier, a family man, and a government employee. DiCaprio is making a career out of seeming miscast; since this entire house-of-cards plot rests on the star's shoulders, the final denouement isn't the heart-breaker it should have been. The picture is vividly atmospheric and features excellent technical detail, yet it is a glum undertaking burdened with overwrought profanities ill-suited to the era. This is what Martin Scorsese wants to bide his time with? **1/2 from ****