Never really delivers

Rating: 6/10 (27 February 2010)

***********************SPOILERS++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ The movie starts off seeming to be a "creepy" thriller about the escape of an insane killer from an island fortress, somewhere off the shores of Boston. It's standard stuff for the first 45 minutes or so, with the usual attempt to make the criminally insane look scary. Mood is everything here, but as the movies have been down this path so many times, and as-in my case-I know that the insane are not particularly scary, it's a question of wondering why Scorsese is going down this trite path.
When he shifts the plot to a "conspiracy" plot it gets even triter. And then it shifts ponderously to a "fooled you" ending. The story tries to confuse with it's shifts, but underneath it all it's all sturm and very little drang. When the ultimate plot line is revealed it's a big let down. It's "spellbound" rehashed.
The big problems for me were that it continues to trot out the usual myths about mental illness; it's symptoms, it's causes, and it's cures.