Written by: Dennis Lehane (novel) and Laeta Kalogridis
Directed by: Martin Scorsese
Genre: Thriller, mystery, drama

My two weeks of legal training workshops, exams and hearings are now over so I have just a little time to sit down and actually do something for my site.  If there’s anyone out there that does visit my site and is still checking in (considering I haven’t updated in weeks) I really will try and post more stuff now that the intensive part of my training seems to be over.

Anyway, I managed to find some spare time last week and I finally got to see Shutter Island.  I was looking forward to it last year when I first saw the trailer and that anticipation didn’t die down even after it’s release date was shifted back.  Leonardo DiCaprio has reached that point in his career where I’ll watch just about anything he stars in, hell, I even sat through almost an hour of Revolutionary Road.  That’s how much I like him.

So as for the movie it was pretty damn awesome up until the twist…
SPOILER WARNING

5

4

3

2

1

Leo’s the patient.

I feel like 10 years ago this might have been a cool twist that left me awestruck and impressed, but now it just seems so tired.  I felt completely cheated by the whole thing in the end and I wouldn’t have thought that Scorsese or DiCaprio would have attached themselves to something so by the numbers.  It’s almost like that episode of Dallas where J.R. is shot but it’s all just a dream.

In my opinion I think the movie would have been far better if DiCaprio was just an FBI guy who is lured to the island in an effort to trap him and he has to solve the crime and escape.  And for the majority of the film that’s exactly what it is until it veers off into M. Night Shyamalan territory.  The trailer is far superior because the whole thing is based around the idea that DiCaprio goes to the island to solve a crime and is trapped there against his will.  There’s nothing in it that makes you think any different.

As you’d expect with a Scorsese flick all the performances were sublime, as was the cinematography and score, and for 90% of the film it was just about the perfect crime/mystery/thriller.  But that damn twist went and ruined everything.  All in all I was quite disappointed in Shutter Island because I was hoping for another knockout from Scorsese and DiCaprio who’ve been on a very impressive roll together.  I guess I’ll have to get my quality fix from DiCaprio from the upcoming Inception, which I have no doubt will be one of my favourite films of the year.

RATING: 6.5/10

CONCLUSION
I’ve spent about 400 words saying it, but the film would have been so much better without the twist.