By Nigel Powlson

HAVING bagged a belated Academy Award for The Departed, Martin Scorsese clearly no longer feels the need to Oscar-chase. Consequently, Shutter Island reverts to the kind of material more likely to please audiences than voters and has subsequently sailed passed the $100m mark at the US box office.

Based on the best-selling book by Dennis Lehane, it's a 1950s-set psychological puzzle starring Leonardo DiCaprio as US Marshal Teddy Daniels who is sent to the Boston Harbor island of the title after one of the inmates of its asylum for the criminally insane disappears,

Teddy and his partner Chuck (Mark Ruffalo) arrive on the ferry that is the only way on and off the island just before a storm cuts off all communication with the outside world.

They are welcomed by Dr Cawley (Ben Kingsley) but as their investigations proceed it becomes clear that the medical staff, especially the sinister Dr Naehring (Max Von Sydow) are'nt being as co-operative as they should. And Teddy begins suffering severe headaches and flashbacks to his army days when he liberated the Dachau concentration camp.

As the story progresses our perceptions of reality consistently change (as in A Beautiful Mind) and Scorsese perhaps doesn't play his hand as well as he could. But, just as in Cape Fear, he seems to revel in the Hitchcockian nature of the mystery and there are enough of his trademark flourishes to make this worth watching.

It would be nice to see him tackling more challenging material but this is, at least, enjoyable while it lasts.

SHUTTER ISLAND

CERTIFICATE: 15

RUNNING TIME: 138 mins

STARTS: Today at the Showcase, Odeon and Cinema De Lux in Derby; Cineworld in Burton; Cinebowl in Uttoxeter.

RATING: 3/5