There was a reasonable amount of buzz going in to this movie with a trailer which did a great job of building anticipation. However, this has to be one of the biggest disparities between a trailer and the actual movie that there has ever been. The trailer was considered, tense and left the viewer with a great sense of unease. The actual movie was formulaic, poorly written and ultimately forgettable. Scorsese can usually be relied upon to deliver tight, focused movies. However, the direction here felt very inept. The use of flashbacks and dream sequences bordered on the comical and the overuse of CGI sapped the emotion out of the film. They were relied upon to convey the back story of the main character, that of the death of his wife and his experiences in World War Two. However, this reliance on flashbacks just served to slow down the movie for little purpose. It got to the point where we no longer care about the main character’s motivations and just want the present day story to resolve itself.

The problem here is that the present day story had little suspense and was not particularly interesting. The problems here seem to lie with the direction and choice of sets and shots that were made. For instance, surely Scorsese could have found a great island to shoot the movie on with suitably creepy cliffs and civil war buildings. It is very obvious watching the film that it was done in a number of different locations and with the heavy use of green screen. A movie like this should feel claustrophobic and suspenseful. But by the end of the movie when the inevitable twist occurs it fails this to such a degree that it feels almost farcical.

Amazingly enough Di Caprio’s performance was rather bland. Considering he was the standout actor in the last few pieces that he did with Scorcese (particularly Gangs of New York and The Departed) his performance in this felt very uninspired. Mark Ruffalo fared a little bit better. He was understated and felt very natural on screen. Still this is miles away from his best performance. The rest of the cast are there but not even remotely memorable. Its not as if the movie lacked screen time to develop meaningful characters. The 138 minute run time feels bloated with so many detours in the fairly simple story that by the third act the audience just wants the film to be over. All in all this is a poorly written, blandly directed film that is completely forgettable. Just skip this one and re-watch any of the good Hitchcock films instead, it will be much more satisfying.