martin scorsese's SHUTTER ISLAND (2010)

it's fortunately not the case that Shutter Island is a disappointment of a film -- it's a good time, and one of the best mainstream psychological thrillers i've seen in a while -- but there certainly is a level of disappointment that Scorsese's pulp dalliance didn't pay off in the ways I'd hoped. the mood and design of the film are terrific, and the way it bounds between unsettling encounters, rarely returning to a character it doesn't have to, is a wonderful way to keep us from our bearings, and Leo from his. but no matter how novel the journey is, Marty seems hamstrung by the very specific place he needs to end up, and all the things that endpoint dictates to the rest of the narrative. there's a constrained feeling to Shutter Island extending quite beyond its (often over-obvious) visual themes of isolation and imprisonment, and it's hard to tell if Scorsese's self-conscious paean to Hitchcockian psycho-noir is at fault or merely a sly tarp thrown over material he didn't really know what to do with. friends complained that the twist was telegraphed, and in the early scenes i felt i was bound to agree, but over time i found myself guessing around and not quite nailing it, so i don't think that's a failing of the film. but i do understand why they were otherwise so faint in their praise: it's a tense time at the movies, but there wasn't any reason for us not to expect something more.