Movie Review of Shutter Island

When this Martin Scorsese film was being initially promoted for a fall 2009 release I was really looking forward to its October premiere date. Not only did it look fantastic with the 50’s style noir-like setting, it also boasted an accomplished cast with Leonardo Di Caprio, Ben Kingsley and Mark Ruffalo. When Paramount made the decision to hold off for a February 2010 release I was bummed. But, alas, the holidays have come and gone and even the unusually snowier-than-normal Nashville winter seems to have passed and here we are….Shutter Island finally opening on 2/19/10.

The movie opens somewhat abruptly with Di Caprio and Ruffalo’s characters at sea and steaming ahead towards the prison isle. Seems a prisoner has gone missing rather inexplicably and these two agents are in route to investigate. From there the movie is full of ups and downs. Scorsese fans will recognize several of the filmmaker’s trademark conceits and some of these work well within the film’s context while others are a bit of a misfire.

There’s a lot of tangent back story and detailed narrative being crammed into the proceedings and while I certainly appreciate thoroughness in character study and development it seems that this begins to bog down the pace of the film in its mid-section. Fortunately, however, the movie kicks it back into gear when rounding for home and all of those details that felt weighty and perhaps unnecessary earlier become clearer and serve the storyline better than expected.

Shutter Island isn’t quite the masterpiece I had hoped for but it’s still a very entertaining and well-acted film and made for a fun  night at the theater.