Shutter Island

Posted by Spencer Diedrick | Posted in , , , , , , , , , , | Posted on 4:45 PM

In Martin Scorsese's new flick, U.S. Marshal Teddy Daniels and his new partner Chuck Aule arrive at Shutter Island, Massachusetts to investigate the disappearance of a patient at Ashecliffe Hospital for the Criminally Insane. Seems pretty straightforward, doesn't it? Then you don't know Scorsese. Adapted very faithfully from the novel by Boston crime aficionado Dennis Lehane (Mystic River, Gone Baby Gone), Shutter Island, starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Mark Ruffalo, Ben Kingsley and Michelle Williams, is one part neo-noir, one part psychodrama, with an extra helping of suspense. It's also chock-full of fantastic actors working very hard to up the creepiness factor in any way they can. All in all, I was very happy with Shutter Island and while it contains a flaw or two, it sustains the tension throughout the picture and keeps you guessing until the very end.

Teddy (DiCaprio) is not a well man. He suffers from seasickness, migraines, and recurring nightmares. He is haunted by his actions in the liberation of a concentration camp. He keeps talking to his wife (Williams), who died in an apartment fire some years ago. But he has bigger fish to fry, and while he and Chuck (Ruffalo) search for child murderer Rachel Solando (Emily Mortimer), they also probe the hospital/prison for evidence of a conspiracy. This conspiracy may involve the unusually genial Dr. Cawley (Kingsley), his more sinister colleague (Max von Sydow), Nazi physical experimentation, the House of Un-American Activities, or, according to two oddballs (Jackie Earle Haley, Patricia Clarkson) Teddy has unsettling encounters with, Chuck himself.

Needless to say, it’s a roller coaster of excitement, and I was completely on board. Scorsese flexes his directing muscles and relentlessly bombards the audience with foreboding and paranoia, the mood of Teddy’s troubled mind; the only part of this that felt truly excessive was the musical score, which is nothing but grating sounds and overtones meant to disturb its listeners (I am told that Scorsese didn’t even commission a new score, but simply recycled a lot of past material!). The acting is top-notch, and DiCaprio gives a bravura performance in the complex, challenging role of Teddy Daniels. Kingsley and von Sydow have mastered that ominous half-smile that gives no one relief, and we see that often in this picture. Mortimer is impressively intense as the escaped patient, and the desperate urgency is palpable in the eyes of Williams, Haley and Clarkson. The only one who seems to be phoning it in is Ruffalo, but then again, his part wasn’t asking for very much. There is a huge twist in the end (I would say SPOILER ALERT but even saying that much lets readers know too much), and while the more I think about it the less sense it makes, it still works cinematically and provides a very satisfying denouement.

I wasn't sure I was going to like this one; while I'm crazy about the cast, I generally prefer Scorsese's true-life stories (The Aviator, Raging Bull, Casino) over his fictional thrillers (Cape Fear, The Departed, Gangs of New York). I was also concerned after the studio pushed back the release date from October 2009 to February 2010. While the producers claimed it had to do with the economy and DiCaprio's unavailability to promote the film, I saw it as a sign that the film wasn't worthy of any awards and the studios switched it with films that were. Thankfully, I was very wrong. I award Shutter Island four pitchforks; while it may be dismissed as a generic genre picture, I see it as one of the best of its kind.

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