Shutter Island is master director Martin Scorsese’s latest film, written by Laeta Kalogridis based on the novel of the same nameby author Dennis Lehane(Gone, Baby, Gone, Mystic River, several episodes of The Wire).  The story is about a federal marshall (Leonardo DiCaprio) and his new partner (Mark Ruffalo) who travel to the isolated Shutter Island off the coast of Boston to investigate the disappearance of a patient from the mental hospital that takes up the island.  While investigating things seem very off and more and more weird things keep happening, all the while the marshall keeps dreaming of his deceased wife (Michelle Williams).

I really had no idea what to expect from this movie.  I love Lehane’s work, although I’m not a big Mystic River fan, and Scorsese nothing needs to be said about.  I had not read this book though so I really had no idea of the plot except for the commercials which were unimpressive.  There’s a reason for that.  The movie itself is for the most part unimpressive itself.

It has a lot going for it.  It is well directed, well shot, and there’s some excellent effects work.  Unfortunately this story is well tread territory and everything is pretty predictable and there isn’t really any suspense.  I also probably should have remembered Lehane’s habit of writing about horrible things happening to children before I took a date to this (don’t take a date to this, unless dead children put your date in the mood, but then you may have bigger problems). Oh there’s Nazi’s and concentration camps too to just add to things in general being totally fucked up in this movie.

I found myself for the most part bored and constantly knowing what was going to happen next.  This is also a very long movie at 2 1/2 hours.  Which is way too long for what is a fairly straightforward story.  And don’t let the big twist the commercials advertise get you to go.  You don’t have to see a single frame to figure out what it is.

Overall this is a disappointing effort from a great director, some great actors, and a great writer (who probably should have wrote the screenplay himself).