Martin Scorsese: Ranking His Movies From Worst To Best

11. Shutter Island

Any movie which places its emphasis on the final act twist revelation tends to live or die by the effectiveness of said twist - a good twist can radically revise everything which has come before, shocking the audience into a stunned silence, whereas a bad one has the effect of leaving the viewer feeling somewhat cheated as they reflect on past events. Shutter Island falls somewhere in the middle, but since this is Martin Scorsese the film offers plenty more besides the plot twist. Telling the story of Edward "Teddy" Daniels and his investigation of a hospital for the criminally insane on the titular island, there's an undercurrent of psychological trauma and guilt which on reflection is more interesting that the final revelation. It's a departure for Scorsese from much of the rest of his work - the kind of film that someone like M. Night Shyamalan might have gone on to make if his career had taken an upwards rather than downwards trajectory. It's one of Scorsese's more obviously flawed works, but the technical virtuosity and strong performances outweigh its narrative shortcomings.