Shutter Island - 2010

Director: Martin Scorsese

Writer: Laeta Kalogridis

Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Mark Ruffalo, Ben Kingsley, Jackie Earle Haley, Ted Levine

"Don't you get it? You're a rat in a maze." Set in 1954, the latest work from renowned Martin Scorsese follows two US marshals (DiCaprio & Ruffalo) on an assignment to investigate the seemingly impossible escape of a mental patient from a high-security institution off the coast of Massachusetts.

All the actors are in top form, especially Haley (nigh unrecognizable, compared to his portrayal of Rorshach in last year's Watchmen). DiCaprio once again proves he's come a long way from being Jack on the Titanic, and even Levine gives a powerful, albeit short, performance. While I don't think this will go down in history as a Scorsese epic along the lines of Taxi Driver or Goodfellas, it's not the worst thing out in theaters right now, or even of 2010 so far (and definitely not of films to come). The film's ending is a love-it-or-hate-it type thing, and its one great flaw lies in its length; the final two scenes could be cut from the film with seemingly nothing lost, and the penultimate scene is just a visual of what the audience spent the prior scene being told in excruciating detail. Personally, I had moved on to awaiting The Invention of Hugo Cabret before Shutter Island's credits began.