Shutter Island Trailer

How bloody awesome does this look? I knew next to nothing about Scorsese's new movie other than its name, which put me off for some strange reason. I had no idea it was a thriller/mystery film, for instance. Or that it had people going mad. I did know that Michelle Williams was part of the cast, which is always a good reason to see anything. And DiCaprio is pretty much a given for Scorsese now. I had no idea that Patricia Clarkson was in it either and, from what we see of her here, she's looking pretty mental. Shutter Island is based on a Dennis Lehane novel and though I didn't enjoy Mystic River nearly as much as a lot of other people did (Laura Linney + rubbish Lady Macbeth role = FAIL), I'm more than interested to see this. Shame it probably won't hit the UK until the end of the year though...

The Aviator

A complicated biopic of Howard Hughes, here presented as a crackpot genius. Scorsese's movie covers Hughes' (Leonardo DiCaprio) life from the troubled production of Hell's Angels through affairs with Katherine Hepburn (Cate Blanchett, firing on all cylinders) and Ava Gardner (Kate Beckinsale) to his decline into paranoia and obsessive compulsive behaviour.

The tone of the movie changes constantly. When we first meet Howard he's the underdog entrepeneur who's laughed at by his contemporaries. After whipping through his feisty relationship with Hepburn, Scorsese touches briefly on the more infamous aspects of Hughes' life (locking himself away with bottles of his own piss) before allowing his hero one last moment of glory in the courtroom, before leaving us on an ambiguous note.

As biopics go this is much more complicated and unconventional than, say, Walk The Line. This doesn't necessarily mean that this is a better film than James Mangolds', but it acts as a real return to form from Scorsese after the disappointing Gangs Of New York. DiCaprio gives a layered performance and does well not to be outshone by the starry supporting cast that also includes Alan Alda, Jude Law, John C. Reilly and Alec Baldwin. There are also a couple of spectacularly mounted airplane sequences and beautiful set designs that make up for the lack of narrative drive during the film's mid-section.