Despite Its Pedigree, "Shutter Island" Feels Awfully Ordinary

Rating: 6/10 (28 July 2010)

Martin Scorsese's Gothic thriller works overtime to wring chills from its creepy setting (an institution for the criminally insane) and mysterious plot twists. But despite, or maybe because of, all of the obvious and heavy-handed directorial flourishes (moody film noir lighting, constant rain and thunder, a screechy score that announces every emotion you should be feeling before you're allowed to feel it), the film is surprisingly unengaging and, even more surprisingly given its stylish director, fairly pedestrian.
Leonardo DiCaprio plays a federal marshal who travels with his partner (Mark Ruffalo) to the eponymous island to investigate the disappearance of an inmate. They butt up against uncooperative administrators (Ben Kingsley, Max von Sydow) and uncover a possible conspiracy that involves inmates being used in mind-control experiments similar to the ones inflicted by the Nazis on concentration-camp Jews. Throughout, we're treated to dream-like flashbacks in which we learn things about DiCaprio's past and help us understand the personal vendettas driving his behavior. Everything builds to a surprise plot twist that's meant no doubt to make us question everything we've watched up to that point in the film but which frankly didn't come as that much of a surprise.
The film is chock-full of recognizable faces in brief cameos: Michelle Williams, Jackie Earle Haley, Elias Koteas, Emily Mortimer, Ted Levine and most notably Patricia Clarkson. But despite the film's high production values and A-list cast, it's hard to believe that someone as talented and capable as Martin Scorsese made this. It's not a bad movie, but it's an awfully mediocre one. There's a reason a film by such a high-profile director was dumped in theatres in the dead of winter.
Grade: B