Before getting into the review of Shutter Island I want to mention two things.  First off, whenever a movie’s release date is pushed back my expectations for how good it is going to be are lowered.  Shutter Island was supposed to have been released last October, but due to financial reasons the studio changed the date to this weekend.  Secondly, I had a bad feeling that the preview had shown me more than it should have, and going into this movie I thought I had a pretty good idea that there would be a twist involved, and that I knew what this twist was.  It is a bit of a pet peeve of mine whenever this happens, but I also enjoy seeing if I am right.  Now onto the review.

 Shutter Island is Martin Scorsese (Goodfellows, Taxi Driver) and Leonardo DiCaprio’s (Titantic, Blood Diamond) fourth collaboration, and it’s based on the novel by Dennis Lahane (Mystic River).  The movie opens in 1954 with two U.S. Marshall’s heading to Boston’s Shutter Island Ashecliffe Hospital for the criminally insane, where one of their prisoners has mysteriously disappeared from her locked room.  Teddy Daniels (DiCaprio) is one of these Marshalls, and he will stop at nothing to solve the case.  As he continues his investigation he discovers that the hospital doctors may be involved in radical and unethical treatments, and he hopes to blow the lid off the entire thing before he leaves the island and returns to the mainland.

 Leonardo DiCaprio continues to impress me.  I was never a fan of his until The Departed, but now it seems like everything he is in I find myself enjoying.  He is joined by an incredible supporting cast in this movie as well, which include Mark Ruffalo(Zodiac, Blindness)  as his partner, and Ben Kingsley (Ganhdi, House of Sand and Fog) as the primary doctor of Shutter Island.  The story does a great job of holding your attention, but I doubt I would have enjoyed it as much as I did without these actors pulling the characters’ strings.

 I found myself enjoying this movie, and I would recommend it.  Even though I did have my theory going in as to what was going to happen, it still kept my attention as I looked for clues that would prove my theory correct.  The story moves at a nice pace, the strong musical score adds to the suspense, and Martin Scorsese’s direction is once again at the high level you would expect.  If you are looking for a great mystery/thriller go see Shutter Island, just avoid watching the preview too closely before you head to the theatre.