Starts very well, but is ultimately let down by a poor resolution

Rating: 6/10 (9 April 2010)

I was looking forward to seeing this film, I had heard plenty of good things about it, and I know that some of the directors previous efforts are excellent films. I was also looking forward to seeing Dicaprio in this role, as recently his acting has improved so much that he is unrecognisable from some of his earlier films. However I was again disappointed, this seems to have been a step back for him, as opposed to forward. His acting swung from extremely wooden, to bouts of massive overacting.
The film however does have good production values, and the cinematography is good. The film is a pretty standard idea for a psychological thriller, detectives hunting down missing person. It is however slightly different. The director deliberately uses a confining technique, setting the film on an island. It is a clever idea, it creates a sense of entrapment and helplessness. It also allows things to stay small scale, rather then the pan America man hunts some films of this type have become.
The way the film is shot is interesting, there seems to be a reliance on flashbacks to push the story forward, which I think is not a good technique. Rather then finding out what is happening in the here and now, we are slowly drip fed information from the past not all of which is relevant. The set up is interesting, the two agents have not previously worked together, allowing for a better way for the audience to get to know the characters. As the characters relationships develop, so does our knowledge of their backgrounds.
I have commented on Dicaprios acting, which I feel was poor at best. However I must add praise for Sir Ben Kingsley, who in my opinion is brilliant. The actor clearly appreciated the role, because his acting is great. Kingsley is truly the star of the show, and for me steals the lime light from the lesser Dicaprio. What is testament to his skill is that even the most awfully written scenes are delivered faultlessly, like the terrible scene in the lighthouse.
The first half of this film had so much atmosphere, tension and power, I am at a loss as to explain where it goes to after that. But strangely everything seems to disappear after that point. The ending is predictably bad, I mean it seems to be a cheap imitation of so many other films. The ending is so cliché, that it was even used in The Simpsons as a joke several years before this films release. I'm afraid the use of the unreliable narrator was this time poor, it reminded me of the ending of Fallen. Which was in many ways better than Shutter Island.
I still can't quite fathom what happened in the second half, and how they managed to waste such grand potential. I'm afraid this can be scored no more than 6/10