Shutter Island (2009)

Leonardo DiCaprio's fourth collaboration with director Martin Scorsese finds him playing a federal marshal investigating the disappearance of a patient at an isolated mental asylum. Adapted from the Dennis Lehane bestseller, this 1950s-set puzzle movie has a psychodrama twist in the tale that some may see coming early on, but there is still fun to be had as Scorsese weaves his operatic thrills in the distinctly gothic surroundings. The director's fevered imagination draws on the creepiness of Val Lewton's 1940s horrors, the expressionistic Cabinet of Dr Caligari, and the dark glamour of Douglas Sirk's 1950s melodramas, packaging them up with his consummate film-making skill. It may be overlong and overly explained, while the heightened theatricality also works against it, but as an exercise in pure style over clichéd content Shutter Island weaves an impressive and gripping spell.