No matter how great the filmmaker behind the camera, a movie is only as good as its screenplay.

Martin Scorsese may be the best director working today, but even he can’t steer “Shutter Island” away from its fundamental story problems. Moody atmosphere, convincing period art direction and an island stocked of A-list actors just can’t save the film from a predictable, tedious plot.

Based on a novel by Dennis Lehane (“Mystic River”), “Shutter Island” takes place in 1954 at a hospital for the criminally insane located on a remote, Northeastern island. A disturbed murderer has disappeared from her cell, so two U.S. Marshals (Leonardo DiCaprio and Mark Ruffalo) are called in to investigate. A couple immediate warning signs for the officers: The guards won’t let them bring in their firearms, and the hospital doctors (Ben Kingsley and Max von Sydow) exude a level of vague creepiness typically reserved for villains on “Lost” island.

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