A thriller produced for an intelligent audience, imagine that. Absolutely a superb film.

Rating: 9/10 (20 February 2010)

Visually, Martin Scorsese is unparalleled. But, if you know anything about cinema, you already knew that. This film isn't a masterpiece, or a storyline we haven't seen before (think along the lines of Identity [2003]), what this film is, is a beautifully crafted thriller. If you enjoy thrillers, you will enjoy this movie, period. I'm not just referring to the twists and turns in the plot either. When you deal with Scorsese, you get quality, and this film is no different. The acting was phenomenal; DiCaprio, Rufallo, and Kinsley delivered, big time. This flick reads like a great novel, and yet, it refuses to take on that distinctive and predictable Hollywood style (that we have all too often been gratuitously subjected to.) In addition, this film has such a realistic quality to it, that never once did I feel as though I had been cheated out of my money. If anything, the previews for the film don't do it justice, they have promoted it as a "scary movie", and that couldn't be further from the truth. I can assure you that Mr. Scorsese isn't looking for the cheap "Boo! I got you!" moment. It's just simply not one of those kinds of movies. He realizes he is dealing with an intelligent audience, and thus, he provide us (the audience) with a clever intellectually stimulating film..
I commend Mr. Scorsese for not electing to go with a conventional ending, and although some people in the theater went "aaww" (in a bad way), I went "aahh!" (in a good way), because I understood the reasoning behind it. With so much humdrum useless junk in the theaters these days, and in particular so much junk in the thriller genre, it is truly a delight to witness a talented director like Martin Scorsese take on a project like this. As you can see, this was definitely my kind of movie, but I have a hunch that I'm not alone, and I have a hunch this thing is going to catch on very very fast.
One last thing, I urge you to see it in theaters, your really missing out if you decide to wait until DVD for this one, trust me on that.