Martin Scorsese (Raging Bull, Taxi Driver, Goodfellas, Casino) the man is a master of bringing to life films with character driven devices. The over the top performance by Leonardo DiCaprio is devout acting at it's finest. In my opinion it is flawless, he is effortless in his performance. The plot is wisely made to begin like a 50's detective thriller with Caprio playing a US Marshal and Mark Ruffalo his partner "Chuck", called upon to investigate a disappearance of a patient on Shutter Island. As the fil swiftly moves along the picture and plot become entangled in something more mysterious and sinister going on within the island. The dynamic of the film paces perfectly which keeps the audience enthralled in what is happening. A ensemble cast with Sir Ben Kingsley playing the lead doctor/psychiatrist, Michelle Williams as Leo's wife and rounding out such a great cast is Emily Mortimer, Max Von Sydow, Jackie Earle Haley, Ted Levine, Elias Koteas.This is a mind blowing, mind bending style of thriller, suspense and drama. I enjoyed the film from it's start to it's climactic ending. Truly a masterpiece in storytelling. I give it a 9 out of 10

Not to be 'snobbish,' but it may be that I've been watching a lot of European movies lately, because I thought this film was laughably bad. I cringed about every five minutes, and could only watch the film in 15-minute intervals. Ruffalo and DaCaprio with phony noir accents, Ben Kingsley doing a poor imitation of Vincent Price, Contrived art direction that was worthy of Young Frankenstein (although Shutter Island apparently isn't supposed to be a comedy. The two FBI agents walking around in pajamas without their guns? And this film was produced before the Trump presidency. Well, chacun a son gout.

Not sure why this particular director is always so highly praised. I watched with the hopes that this movie would be different from his others, based on some reviews that claimed it broke away from his usual pattern. Unfortunately, it was a disappointment, I should have known better. About 15 minutes into the movie I realized what was going on and how it would end. Not sure why it is so highly praised. Once I realized what was going on the movie seemed unbearably slow.

I've seen most of Scorsese's films, but for some reason I never got around to watching this one, but I'm glad I finally watched it. It's not one of his best films, but this is definitely one of his most thrilling and well shot films. This movie is full of incredible visuals, and is also full of shocking moments that kept me engrossed. The best part of this movie was Leonardo DiCaprio's performance. He gives such a layered performance as someone slowly losing his sanity(or gaining it back). Overall, a very well made movie from Scorsese.