Not one of Scorsese's best, though not bad either.

Rating: 7/10 (20 April 2010)

As a stand alone film it's not that bad but as a work of Scorsese it's something of a fail. there are certain aspects here that I really like but as a whole it's just too conventional of a film for me to rate it any higher. I won't say anything about the plot as it's basically your typical psych ward thriller type film in this regard. Scorsese does do a very good job at keeping us off our guard here and despite the fact that there isn't anything ground breaking here the sense of paranoia and uncertainty is extremely well conveyed. There is also some fine acting from the likes of DiCaprio and Ben Kingsly of course, especially from Kingsly. But I kept waiting for the film to turn into something more than a basic horror/thriller and sadly it never really delivers here. It certainly is better than just about 95% of any of the other psych horror/thrillers, and this is certainly because of Scorsese's hand, but it ultimately fails to step outside this rather clichéd and over trodden territory. There was potential here for something much better but it's never really utilized fully. Still if you like psychological thrillers I'd still recommend seeing it. It's not a bad film by any means it's just not anywhere near as good as one would hope given the talent behind it.