Shutter Island (2010)
By: Martin Scorsese (director), Laeta Kalogridis (screenplay), Dennis Lehane (novel)
Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Mark Ruffalo, Ben Kingsley, Max von Sydow, Michelle Williams, Emily Mortimer, Patricia Clarkson, Jakie Earle Haley, Ted Levine, John Carroll Lynch, Elias Koteas
Drama is set in 1954, U.S. Marshal Teddy Daniels is investigating the disappearance of a murderess who escaped from a hospital for the criminally insane and is presumed to be hiding on the remote Shutter Island.
I got a late start on watching my movie last night, and lo and behold, when I went to write my review, the internet was out, so I just went to bed. There will be two posts today, but this one will be backdated. Okay? Okay.
Martin Scorsese and I don’t really get along, I’ll just say that up front. I can recognize that he’s a good director, but anytime I see some of his work it reaffirms for me that he’s not the director for me. Shutter Island isn’t any different, although I will say that it was more enjoyable than I expected.
There’s the makings of a good, if predictable, thriller here. Scorsese’s hand is a bit too heavy, though, too abrupt and transparent—I’d figured the whole thing out very early in, due largely to having it all but handed to me. The ending was the best part of the film and tied everything together very well, but I think it could have been much more effective had there been more faith placed in the viewer; if nothing else, it would have been more surprising. Furthermore, I think Leonardo DiCaprio has a tendency to be a bit overblown without the right directorial hand, and while I know he’s supposed to be Scorsese’s muse, I think Scorsese’s style makes it worse. The acting was quite good in general, but I had difficulty relating to any of the characters, which, again, contributed to a less satisfying whole.
Overall, I think Shutter Island was a solid film, but fell short of what it could have been. If you enjoy Scorsese, you may very well appreciate it more than I did.
I enjoy Scorsese and enjoyed it less than you did! I think one of the difficulties people are having with this movie is that it’s not really supposed to be one of Scorsese’s major works — I don’t want to say it’s “just” a genre film (because there’s nothing wrong with those), but it’s “just” a genre film like his Cape Fear project twenty years ago. Decent films, but not anything anyone should have had Oscar expectations of.
The other thing is that I think people are making too much of the fact that there’s a “twist” because it’s not really a twist ending since it comes about 2/3 into the film. I read a good review somewhere that talked about how the twist isn’t really supposed to be the be-all-and-end-all of the movie so much as it’s more a catalysing moment for Teddy’s attempts to work out his mental issues for the last third of the movie and what that means for his moral development, etc. I think we’re conditioned as movie goers to interpret the twist as a big deal (which is why we get upset when we see it coming a mile away) but the more I think about this movie, the more I agree with that other guy in that it’s placement in the story makes everything that comes after more important / interesting than the twist itself.
I definitely agree with you about the twist not being the crux of the whole thing, and giving the actual ending a bit more weight. I liked the ending, for all that it was sort of daring and unexpected and terribly sad. The trouble with the twist being so obvious, though, is that I figured out what was going on so early in that a lot of the movie felt to me like a means to an end. It wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t as engaging as it could have been, because I was just patiently waiting for the reveal.