When I heard that Shutter Island was being made into a movie in late 2008, I nearly jumped out of my pants, especially when I heard that Martin Scorsese was going to be directing. As the year of 2009 went along, I was waiting for October. Then, right before I nearly couldn’t stand the wait for it, the release date got moved to February 19, 2010. This really made me both aggravated, and understanding, for the movie probably needed to be made better. I then heard the full acting cast, and saw the trailer. I was only thrown off by one thing in the whole spectrum: Laeta Kalogridis was writing the screenplay. Though this may not sway many people because of the probable question of “who the hell is Laeta Kalogridis?” Well, the writer of Alexander, which sucked, and Pathfinder, which also sucked, was looked down upon, though after seeing this movie I figured that maybe it was the fact that the movies just sucked that she was credited with badness for. When finally saw this movie after a lot of time of thinking after reading the book, I really thought one thing:

Wow, this movie was actually really good. It really struck home with the greatness of the novel. In all honesty, I wish I hadn’t read the book so I wouldn’t know the ending.

Teddy Daniels (DiCaprio), a U.S. Marshall and war hero, arrives on Shutter Island with his partner Chuck Aule, a new Marshall from Washington, to get to the bottom of a miraculous mystery: the wear-abouts of patient Rachael Solando, who vanished, almost into thin air.

Best Aspects of the film are Scorsese’s great direction, the actually well-written screenplay, and the amazing ensemble cast, which included Ben Kingsley, Max von Sydow (Who I thought was dead), the one scene with Jackie Earle Hailey, and the king of creepy Ted Levine, along with Michelle Williams who played Teddy’s late wife Dolores. The only thing I would change is the two main members of the cast: Teddy Daniels and Chuck Aule. I would have chosen Mark Wahlberg to play Teddy, and Vincent D’Onofrio to play Chuck.

Bottom Line: A-. GREAT adaptation, though DiCaprio changed accents about six times. The ending was perfectly crafted to the book, and the direction by Martin Scorsese was just great. Well done. Hands down the best 2010 movie I’ve seen this year. I recommend this movie to anyone who is a fan of the great mysteries (and this one is great).