DiCaprio, in his most haunting and emotionally complex performance yet, is the vessel Scorsese uses to lead us through the film’s labyrinth.
80
VarietyTodd McCarthy
VarietyTodd McCarthy
Even when it's clear Scorsese has decided to employ fakery and allow it to be obvious, it's done with elegance and beauty.
80
Arizona RepublicBill Goodykoontz
Arizona RepublicBill Goodykoontz
It's not a great movie so much as it is great moviemaking. It's basically a potboiler genre film, a B-movie with big talent attached.
70
The Hollywood ReporterKirk Honeycutt
The Hollywood ReporterKirk Honeycutt
It's a pleasure to experience Scorsese as a circus master. One just hopes he doesn't continue in this vein.
70
Village Voice
Village Voice
Since more attention has gone into filigreeing details into each scene than worrying about the way they'll fit together, the rattletrap engages you moment-to-moment, even as the overall pacing stops and lurches alarmingly.
This gruesome thriller set in a fogbound insane asylum is incomprehensible and fatally flawed, but having said all of that, I will also say this: It never seems anything less than the work of a skillful film buff. Mr. Scorsese may be a smart aleck, but he’s a professional smart aleck.
63
Orlando SentinelRoger Moore
Orlando SentinelRoger Moore
It’s not bad, but as Scorsese, America’s greatest living filmmaker and film history buff should know, even Hitchcock came up short on occasion.
60
Time OutJoshua Rothkopf
Time OutJoshua Rothkopf
Shutter Island is slumming: minor but enjoyably nuts.