Film review
Directed by Martin Scorsese
Starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Mark Ruffalo, Ben Kingsley, Max von Sydow, Michelle Williams
Release date 12 March 2010

It’s 1954, and US Marshals Teddy Daniels (DiCaprio) and Chuck Aule (Ruffalo) take a ferry out to the storm-lashed Shutter Island, which houses a hospital for the criminally insane. The pair have been called in to investigate the disappearance of one of the inmates. But everyone they meet, not least head psychiatrist Dr. Cawley (Kingsley), seems to hold dark secrets and the detectives come to wonder if they’ll make it off the rock alive…

The last decade has seen Martin Scorsese concentrate his energies on creating classy, classical mainstream pictures in a variety of genres (with the odd music documentary in between). Gangs of New York, The Aviator, The Departed… None compare to such earlier masterworks as Mean Streets, Taxi Driver or Raging Bull, but all possess a stylistic flair and confidence most directors can only dream of. Shutter Island continues this run of accomplished later works, while marking new ground for Marty – a horror-influenced mystery thriller set in the 1950s.

Based on the novel by Dennis Lehane, the movie sees Teddy (a believably haunted DiCaprio) and Aule (Ruffalo, still one of today’s finest supporting actors) bounce from clue to clue as they attempt to solve an apparently impenetrable mystery. As they interview unflappable head psychiatrist Dr. Cawley (Kingsley), the German-born doctor Jeremiah Naehring (Von Sydow) and various jittery inmates, we’re never entirely sure who the good guys and bad guys are, echoing the identity crisis and uncertainty that swept the world following WWII. Certainly, the flashback-wrecked Teddy is wrestling with his own guilt about his actions during wartime and its immediate aftermath, and the wave-battered island comes to represent a collective post-war psychosis and paranoia.

As the deceptively straightforward narrative moves forward, accompanied by a wonderfully dramatic soundtrack from contemporary classical greats, Scorsese ventures into horror territory for the first time since his gripping 1991 remake of Cape Fear. When a hurricane knocks out the electrified fence surrounding the maximum-security wing, he ratchets up the fear factor as the Marshals wander around apocalyptic corridors searching for escaped inmates in scenes that wouldn’t be out of place in a stalk-n-slash flick. But the horror in Shutter Island is more psychological than bloody, bathed in a sense of damage and remorse.

Scorsese film is littered with direct and indirect references to the history of cinema. There are echoes of everything from King Kong and Invasion of the Body Snatchers to Silence of the Lambs and Vertigo, as well as the pulp fiction that inspired Lehane. But above everything, this is unmistakably a Scorsese picture, and the film is as visually stylish as his past works, whether it’s a remarkable dolly shot of a firing squad or a tragic, beautiful vision of Teddy’s dead wife in their old home, surrounded by falling ash.

The danger with a puzzler like this is that much hinges on providing satisfying, believable resolution to the various mysteries. Sadly the conclusion to Shutter Island, though essentially faithful to Lehane’s novel, is neither satisfying nor believable, and also feels rather over-familiar, leading to a rather disappointing final 20 minutes. It’s not enough to destroy the power of a hugely entertaining period mystery, but feels like a cop-out after 110 minutes of glorious twists and turns. Matt McAllister

VERDICT: 7/10
Intelligent, gripping, beautiful… It’s just a shame that the finale doesn’t quite live up to what went before.