Shutter Island

Drew's Thoughts:
It's not often you get a Scorsese movie within the first two months of a new year and I was justifiably concerned. February, the month in which this was released, is notorious as a dumping ground for studios to unload their crappiest productions since the heat of Oscar season is still on and a lot of people are just going to see Oscar movies anyway. As things turned out Shutter Island is a decent film so its release was more of a money-making strategy to be a big fish in a small pond of crappy fish.
Shutter Island is one of those twisty thrillers (like The Sixth Sense and all the other M. Night Shyamalan flicks) and the downside is that the film definitely doesn't transcend its genre or do anything especially interesting with it. However, Marty is behind the camera making the film about as good as can be within the genre limitations.
The film centers on Leonardo Dicaprio as a Federal Marshall investigating a mysterious asylum for the criminally insane on an isolated island along the northeastern seaboard and when Leo arrives he finds that something strange is going on. The less I tell you about the plot, the more fun it will be so I'll leave it there.
It's probably a good 20 minutes too long, but it was pretty fun to watch even with the obligatory "unexpected" final twist. (For once, I just want the twist to be that there isn't a twist!)
There's solid work by a strong cast, Leo D. and Ruffalo were good and Jackie Earle Haley (Little Children) and the always welcome presence of Patricia Clarkson (Good Night and Good Luck.) were fun in their single scenes, but the script doesn't provide a lot for the cast to really sink their teeth into.
The art direction was good, if a little overly CGI'd, and it could potentially make it to the Dolphin ceremony next year depending on what competition materializes. I also liked the score which has a cold, hard and very sinister presence.
This is no Raging Bull (obviously!) or even The Aviator, but it's more or less the quality level of The Departed, though Departed has some great scenes intermingled with some pretty bad ones and Shutter Island just maintains being pretty good throughout. I did enjoy it more than Cape Fear, Scorsese's other genre thriller, which may be the most apt comparison.
All in all though, Shutter Island is a slick mainstream thriller that benefits from actual craftsmanship and care behind the camera.

Colleen's Thoughts:
Martin Scorsese’s Shutter Island has the stamp of entertaining approval from this Kenny. While the movie was no Taxi Driver or even Aviator (as Drew mentioned) it was entertaining and, I felt, well directed. I would like to watch the film again now knowing the twist to see what details I can pull out or see the clues I should have seen before. I am not that great at guessing twists so this one, of course, got me. It was plain to see beginning to end that the movie had a heavy dose of suspenseful psycho-thriller Hitchcock influence which, for the most part, served Marty well. The cinematography and art direction are worth remembering for this Dolphin Season. While I did thoroughly enjoy this film sometimes I can’t stop myself from wishing Marty would return to his 70s and 80s style and throw a bit more grit on the screen.