What it’s about: Adapted from Dennis Lehane’s 2003 novel, the film follows Teddy Daniels (DiCaprio), a World War II veteran and US marshal in 1954. Along with his new partner, Chuck Aule (Ruffalo), he travels to the eponymous institution for the criminally insane to investigate the disappearance of a patient guilty of infanticide (Mortimer). But he’s taken the case with an agenda of his own, related to the death of his wife (Williams), and the deeper he probes into the practices of the island’s eccentric head doctor (Kingsley), the more things reveal themselves to be not quite what they seem.

Reflections: This is a film that revolves around a late-game reveal, which makes it difficult to discuss without spoilers. But it also represents Scorsese at his most surreal and hallucinatory, using his considerable talent to keep the audience from ever being able to completely trust what they’re seeing. While, in some ways, it very much fits in with the director’s preoccupations with masculine identity and self-delusion–Teddy asks at one point “which one would be worse: to live as a monster or to die as a good man?”–it also represents an anomaly in his catalogue in the way it uses misdirection to build its psychological dread, rather than presenting its characters for judgement in an up front (and usually confrontational) way.

That said, on a repeat viewing, the twist is well-seeded from the start, with subtleties in the performances–particularly those of Ruffalo, Kinglsey, von Sydow, and Levine–standing out. What could’ve felt like cheap and pulpy fare in lesser hands is elevated by sharp editing from longtime Scorsese collaborator Thelma Schoonmaker and expressive use of lighting and texture from cinematographer Robert Richardson. And the whole affair is given a broader significance in its frequent nods to the hollowness of justifications for war and the nihilistic possibilities of nuclear destruction.

Even a lesser Scorsese film is sill better than a lot of what’s out there and, while it may be a little self-serious and implausible for some, it still stands above other films that deal with similar subject matter and is absolutely worth checking out for anyone who’s a fan of noir-ish mystery. It’s also interesting for the handful of moments, such as the woman that shushes Teddy when he arrives at the island, that veer closer to outright horror than its director–one of our greatest living filmmakers–has ever come.