Rating-***1/2
Scorsese first showed the world that he could not only intrigue them but scare the heck out of them when he directed the brilliant Cape Fear in 1991. 19 years later he tries again with Shutter Island. Does he succeed? Yes, for the most part.
For the first two acts, the movie succeeds in every way. It attempts what very few horror/thriller pictures attempt these days: atmosfear. This is an amalgam used by movie buffs to describe a movie that relies on atmosphere to scare you instead of gore and "boo" moments.
The atmospheres of Scorsese's films are very important. In work he works very hard to immerse the audience in the narrative. Like I said, the first two acts succeed at creating an atmosphere of total and complete entrapment. From what we can see, even the weather on Shutter Island is trying to stop DiCaprio from finding the truth.
The dialogue throughout is well written and delivered, and the eerie cinematography works very well. You get an interesting insight into the slipping sanity of the main character, and wonder who people can trust. However, this all stops in the third act. Yes, there is a plot twist. No it's not hard to see coming, and no, it's not incredibly original. Honestly, all the creepiness of the first two acts is kind of destroyed by the twist.
The twist, combined with an unnecessarily long runtime, prevent a good movie from being great. I could go on about "if it was half an hour shorter," or "if the twist was better," but I won't. I really don't know whether or not to reccomend it but I'll say this: Shutter Island is no Cape Fear.
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