Scorsese goes mainstream

Rating: 9/10 (24 March 2010)

I haven't seen every Scorsese film by any means - probably about two thirds of them - so I don't come to Shutter Island as a fan, particularly. I admire Scorsese's skill and talent, but I don't necessarily like his films that much. However, I do recognise that he is a movie maker whose work is strongly individualistic.
Which make Shutter Island unusual, because it is very much an accessible, mainstream kind of movie.
Two cops - Di Caprio and Ruffalo - travel to an isolated island, home to a psychiatric prison hospital, to investigate a missing patient. Information/clues start from the very start. Some of them are misleading, some are valid but possibly not in the way you expected, and some are fair clues. As a result, you are kept guessing nearly all the way through.
I suppose if you guess what's going on early on then you may be disappointed: I didn't, and wasn't.
The cast is uniformly excellent: DiCaprio is particularly impressive, although I wish he would avoid facial stubble.
If I had a criticism, it would be that the film is a touch overlong.