Supposed thriller an uninspired letdown

With names like Scorsese, DiCaprio, and Kingsley you would expect "Shutter Island" to be great. What we get is an overdone, unoriginal letdown.

The story revolves around U.S. Marshals Teddy Daniels (Leonardo DiCaprio) and Chuck Aule (Mark Ruffalo).

They receive a call over the wire to investigate an institution for the criminally insane. Apparently, a patient has escaped, with no one witnessing this occurrence. This is highly unlikely considering, the patients are under virtual 24-hour surveillance. Teddy and Chuck are appointed the unenviable task of figuring out how Rachel seemingly waltzed out of the ward. Through various conversations with Dr. Cawley (Ben Kingsley), the head of the hospital, and a myriad of interviews with the staff, and other patients, the Marshals deduce something is amiss on the island. What follows is an almost unfathomable labyrinth of twists and turns, with each one being more absurd than the last. The story really brings down what otherwise is a nicely acted Period/Thriller. By the time the final "surprise" twist is revealed, you would have figured it out for yourself, well before they get around to telling you. DiCaprio and Ruffalo share a solid chemistry, that chemistry is wasted though, due to the lame story.

Dicaprio's Teddy has lived through his wife's death, and he is emotionally damaged because of it. His motive for being on the island is to find the man that is responsible for her death. We see through flashback, that Teddy has his own problems, which cause him to slip slowly into an apparent madness. Ruffalo's Chuck is not really fleshed out as well as Teddy, but what we learn is he's been a US Marshal for five years, and is still learning the ropes. Kingsley plays his part like an expert tight-rope walker. His character is the one that keeps you guessing right up to the inevitable end. Another minor, yet pivotal role, went to Jackie Earle Haley, who portrays deranged patient George Noyce. We're led to believe that Noyce has a previous history with Teddy Daniels, but I'll leave that for you to decide.

Scorsese's direction is heavy handed at times, but you can tell he has a true love for the work he does. This is not his finest work, but certainly isn't his worst. He brings a very film noir style to this picture, which is a nice departure from his more famous crime drama work.

All in all I expected more from this "veritable" dream team, and was disappointed by the outcome.

** for this nicely acted, but poorly written, unoriginal, and uninspired thriller.