Shutter island

Intense and twisty, Martin Scorsese's fourth pairing with Leonardo DiCaprio casts the actor as a U.S. marshal who's investigating a prison for the insane on a remote island in 1954. The detective (with his partner, played by Mark Ruffalo) is looking into how a murderess disappeared from her cell, but he's also battling internal demons surrounding the accidental death of his wife (Michelle Williams). Scorsese's dense movie was adapted from a book by Dennis Lehane, whose novels Gone Baby Gone and Mystic River also became packed-with-plot films. Though sequences often have more talk than action, the rich story, haunting score and cinematography echoing The Shining add up to a gripping journey. And leading man DiCaprio, who's in every scene, holds the intricate story together with ease.