After two weekends raking in at the box office, I finally got around to seeing Shutter Island.  I figure that if it can take a protracted amount of time to get the finished film into the theaters (usually a bad sign), it can take me a little while to get out to see it.

The pedigree is impeccable.  Martin Scorsese directs a cast of fine (and some iconic) actors – Leonardo DiCaprio, Ben Kingsley, Max von Sydow, and Mark Ruffalo.  The film is based on a novel by Dennis Lehane (author of two other novels that have been adapted into better films, Mystic River, which is a winner all around, and Gone Baby Gone, another movie that promises more than it delivers in terms of story).

Shutter Island looks great, but the film’s about 30 minutes too long.  Another letdown is that the movie seems a little gimmicky when the big reveal rolls around.  Shutter Island is less than the sum of these parts but not by a big margin.