The payoff to Martin Scorsese's Shutter Island makes the increasingly frustrating build-up all seem worthwhile

There are so many mysteries on the island, it feels like you’re never going to get any answers. Is there a way off the island? Can the others on the island be trusted? And are dead people really speaking to the living? Just when the questions make your head start to spin, you remember that Leonardo DiCaprio wasn’t on a plane that crashed and you’re not watching “Lost,” you’re watching Shutter Island.

And fortunately, by the conclusion of Shutter Island, you get all the answers you need. (Whether the same is true for “Lost” remains to be seen.)

Martin Scorsese‘s latest film, originally slated for release last October, was delayed just weeks before it was to open because the studio wanted it to have ”every possible chance to succeed both creatively and financially.” If Scorsese needed more time in the editing room, it was time well spent. The film works – but just barely – and it’s only the last 20 minutes that redeem what is an increasingly frustrating build-up. Fortunately the pay-off makes it all worthwhile.

Based on the novel by Dennis Lehane (Mystic River, Gone Baby Gone), Shutter Island is the site of a mental hospital for the criminally insane — an Alcatraz-like prison off the coast of Massachusetts. When a patient goes missing, Federal Marshals Teddy Daniels (DiCaprio) and Chuck Aule (Mark Ruffalo) are sent to investigate. Emerging from the fog onto the island like gumshoe heroes, the two are met by the island’s creepy doctors, Dr. Cawley (Ben Kingsley) and the German Dr. Naehring (Max von Sydow), the latter serving as a reminder of Teddy’s time fighting the Nazis. Nothing is as it appears on the island, and before long finding answers is just as important as surviving.

From the start, it’s clear Scorsese is matching the film’s style to the content. He’s too accomplished a director to allow all the little errors, odd editing, and quick cuts to be sloppy work. So if it must mean something, what is it? Interestingly, only 15 minutes into Shutter Island, a film from 1997 sprung to mind for having a similar feel to it. Naming the film would be a spoiler.

To read the rest of Tim’s review, hop on over to Metro Weekly, where his article is currently running.