For Shutter Island, 68-year-old grand filmmaker and historian Martin Scorsese dips into the psychological-horror-suspense pockets of a coat once worn by the great Alfred Hitchcock. If Hitchcock were around today would he succumb to 3D and visual effects like the ones you see in seasonal Blockbusters? I think he would but to a more subtle degree. Look at the unusual camera movements and matte paintings of films like Psycho (1960) and Vertigo (1958), and the unique art design contribution of Salvador Dali in Hitch’s Spellbound (1945). Shutter Island has no 3D technology but you wouldn’t know that from what depth and dimension you see presented here visually and aurally. Creepy characters and objects consciously placed in or outside of the frame are done so always as a reminder of what Shutter Island is, an insane asylum for criminals. Scorsese is doing what he does best today which is big studio, professional filmmaking that pushes the boundaries of all key elements of film, including visual effects, to not just sell tickets but to tell a good story. Is Shutter Island worth seeing? To help you decide, here are nine facts and opinions of Scorsese’s 21st feature film, Shutter Island.

1. Fact: Leonardo DiCaprio stars as U.S. Marshall Teddy Daniels, along with partner Chuck Aule played by Mark Ruffalo, investigating a missing woman thought to have escaped an Alcatraz-type reformatory for the criminally insane. Opinion: While DiCaprio’s performance in What’s Eating Gilbert Grape should have won him the Oscar in 1994, a film which solidified him as one of the best young actors of the last two decades, he is no Robert De Nero and I think it’s time Scorsese found another male lead for his next few films. Or so I thought prior to seeing Shutter Island. In Shutter Island, no single male actor could pull off what Scorsese has DiCaprio do. He is better here than in Gangs of New York (2002), The Aviator (2004), and The Departed (2006), all of Scorsese’s last feature films which have had DiCaprio in the lead. DiCaprio does his illustrious squat-faced, boyish man fighting back inner anguish and tears better than usual even though I wasn’t thrilled to be seeing him in yet another Scorsese film (funny how I don’t feel that way about De Nero). The only thing hurting his performance is the insatiable amount of screen time, time that encompasses many facets of his character’s life, including experiences as a G.I. liberating a concentration camp in Nazi Germany, that his character must endure while on this island.

2. Fact: The Cinematography is by Director of Photography Robert Richardson who has shot most of Scorsese’s work lately, and photographed for Oliver Stone and Quentin Tarantion—Casino (1995), Natural Born Killers (1994), Platoon (1986), and most recently Inglourious Basterds for which he is nominated in this year’s Cinematography category. He already has two Oscars for JFK (1991) and The Aviator. Opinion: Amazing. The photography is crisp, noirish, high-contrast, and lit like a film with a big studio backing. Every portion of a frame has been scrutinized and studied, with movements rehearsed for perfection prior to any rolling of film. It has the look and feel of the times—1954—and is as reminiscent of Hitchcock’s North by Northwest (1959) or To Catch a Thief (1955) as it is to Frank Darabont’s The Green Mile (1999) or The Shawshank Redemption (1994).

3. Fact: Shutter Island is edited by long-time Scorsese collaborator Thelma Shoonmaker, three-time Oscar winner for her editing of The Departed, The Aviator, and Raging Bull (1980). Opinion: Shoonmaker and Scorsese are up to their usual tricks which is to capture as many shots from a scene as possible and edit those images rapid-fire like machine gun snap shots at a fashion shoot all in an attempt to pack the scene with as much detail as possible. Shots usually considered throw-away as in a door knob, or the head of a match striking flint, or U.S. Marshall badges are all flashed on screen and accompanied by sound cues ironic to the objects we see in such a way that when put together really get your subconscious going. Like in Raging Bull, the sound of flash bulbs from photographers’ cameras provides an added bonus to the sounds of a fight scene in helping to get into the mind of boxer Jake Lamotta. That same flash bulb sound effect is used similarly in Shutter Island only the boxer has been replaced with a darkly cerebral investigator. The idea here too is when sound is slowed down or altered for effect it can often times mirror the emotional, mental, or physical state of the character on screen. Sometimes the action and sound provide a soundtrack, as in the continuous striking of matches to light a dark room. It’s a choreography for the senses that is masterfully done.

4. Fact: According to the Internet Movie Database, IMDB.com, there are at the least 82 key Art Department personnel and 53 key Visual Effects people credited for working on Shutter Island. Opinion: While the numbers are not even close to the number of crew members who worked on Avatar within these two departments it does at least give you an idea of the kind of almost imperceptible work being done here to add additional depth to the story without us even realizing it. From the trailers you might not suspect that Shutter Island is a visual effects-laden film but then again what film isn’t. It’s one of two camps of Hollywood theory on technology, this one being the one where computer graphics are used to subtly assist the story as opposed to the other theory that exploits technology to sell tickets. Look for a surreal moment of ashen paper-like rain falling in an enclosed living room. It’s extremely poetic while at the same time unsettling.

5. Fact: Screenplay written by Laeta Kalogridis, adapting Shutter Island from the novel by Dennis Lahane, author of Mystic River (2003). Opinion: I haven’t read the book but imagine from what I’ve seen in Shutter Island like Silence of the Lambs (1991) it seems an intimidating amount of weaving and a putting-together puzzle of words and images on paper. What to put in, what to leave out, what to change to better serve cinema? A film like this would certainly be one you would see in a Best Adapted Screenplay category. But that’s purely based on how the film played out in the theater. It may be so varied from the book that its authenticity to the screen may be in question. You know how it is, the book is always better than the movie. From the direction this film takes, like a labyrinth, a revealing of more information chapter by chapter, I would say it felt very much like a book as I was viewing it.

6. Fact: Ben Kingsley also stars and won an Oscar for portraying Ghandi (1982). Opinion: Kingsley is still an actor to be mindful of when considering the greats of all time. I don’t see him enough these days but can remember when just about every big picture featured Kingsley. Here, he plays a psychiatrist, and somewhat of a mysterious advocate for the careful treatment of his patients. Is he a good guy, or a bad guy? One can’t be too sure. But in walking that fine line Kingsley doesn’t trip on his own steps. Also stars Michelle Williams, Emily Mortimer, Max von Sydow, Patricia Clarkson, and Jackie Earle Haley.

7. Fact: Rated R for disturbing violent content, language and some nudity. Opinion: Disturbing to say the least. There are Holocaust images of dead women and children left in piles by the Nazis, heaps of bodies that in the winter of the Ally arrival in WWII are macabre frozen statues of death that go where no film portraying these horrors has gone before.

8. Fact: Two hours and eighteen minutes long. Opinion: Felt like more than that which I think is the film’s only detriment. I would normally say cut it, but with subject matter like this it makes sense to let it go long because like some of the characters in the film it all becomes maddening for a reason. Especially as we’re led down the same path as our protagonist, Teddy Daniels.

9. Fact: Cost of a single adult ticket, $10.50. Opinion: This is difficult because I’m such a fan of Scorsese. I’d say if you’re a fan of Scorsese, or Hitchcock, and/or like DiCaprio and psychologically suspenseful films, and just about everything I said above then it’s worth it. But like it was with David Fincher’s Zodiac (2007), I was quite happy taking an entire Sunday afternoon to lie on the couch and enjoy it in its lengthy entirety on DVD. In other words, don’t feel bad if you miss it at the theater. Just remember to keep it in mind when it hits DVD and Blu-ray.