Martin Scorsese-Leonardo DiCaprio’s SHUTTER ISLAND to Top Box Office

Leonardo DiCaprio in Shutter Island: Is that a Na'vi tagging me?

Valentine's Day may lure considerably fewer filmgoers this coming weekend, but don't expect holdover Avatar to soar to the top of the box office. James Cameron's sci-fi adventure is headed to its 10th successful weekend, but the big winner will surely be the latest Martin Scorsese-Leonardo DiCaprio collaboration, Shutter Island, a crime thriller Laeta Kalogridis adapted from a 2003 novel by Dennis Lehane.

The story of two cops (DiCaprio and Mark Ruffalo) sent to a remote island in 1954 to find an escapee from a mental asylum who may or may not be a serial murderer, Shutter Island — a sort of Alfred Hitchcock homage — opened at the Berlin Film Festival a few days ago. Also in the Shutter Island cast: Ben Kingsley, Michelle Williams, Patricia Clarkson, Emily Mortimer, Jackie Earle Haley, and Max von Sydow.

In The Guardian, Andrew Pulver wasn't that thrilled with the thriller: "Shutter Island is an out-of-body pastiche to rival New York, New York, Scorsese's attempt to make a Vincente Minnelli musical. One thing Hitchcock wouldn't have done, though, is throw in sledgehammer replicas of shots from his previous movies: Shutter Island contains a shower scene (Psycho), a clambering-up-very-tall-building scene (Vertigo) and a scrambling-precariously-up-rocks scene (North by Northwest). There were probably many more, but the plot is so complicated it's tricky to keep your attention on both at the same time."

Neither was Andy Klein at Brand X, complaining that Shutter Island "is mostly enjoyable along the way . . .  until the final 15 minutes or so pulls  the rug out from under us and retroactively soils much of that enjoyment." Leonard Maltin agrees. Besides calling Shutter Island "a major disappointment," Maltin complains the film offers "a twist so far-reaching it will likely polarize viewers, some of whom may find it fascinating while others will simply be put off. I felt as if I’d been led through a labyrinthine shaggy-dog story only to arrive at a meaningless punchline."

In the Los Angeles Times, Betsy Sharkey was more enthusiastic, calling Shutter Island "a divinely dark and devious brain tease of a movie in the best noir tradition with its smarter than you'd think cops, their tougher than you'd imagine cases to crack and enough nods to the classic genre for an all-night parlor game."

Photos: Shutter Island (Paramount)