138 Minutes
Directed By: Martin Scorsese
Written By: Laeta Kalogridis
Based On The Novel By: Dennis LeHane
Staring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Ben Kingsley, Mark Ruffalo, Max von Sydow, Michelle Williams, Emily Mortimer, Patricia Clarkson, Ted Levine, and Jackie Earle Hayley
Don’t you get it? You’re a rat in a maze. -George Noyce
Shutter Island was a love letter to old school suspense/thriller, Hitchcock twists, and Kubrick style pacing, with a haunting score that chill your bones hours after you’ve left the theatre. Scorsese takes us on a disturbing journey across an island with too many secrets and too little answers. There was nothing typically Scorsese about this movie, aside from the attention to every possible detail of fleshing out characters, story, and the audience perspective, which in this case was riveting.
Shutter Island is a mental asylum for the criminally insane. Detective Teddy Daniels and his new partner Chuck Aule have been recruited to investigate an escaped female prisoner. While the guards and everyone seems to be highly concerned about the escapee, Daniels begins to expect something else is going on as well. Haunted by memories of his dead wife and horrible events that he took part in during the war, he is hardly stable, but determined to discover what the head psychologist Dr. Cawley is hiding. What he begins to uncover is haunting and unnerving.
If you can say anything about Leonardo DiCaprio it’s that the man can act. He is so incredibly dynamic and can tap into emotions and convey them in such a genuine way, I always feel like I’m a voyeur watching his characters. His ability to be both vulnerable and strong is unmatched and his chemistry with Scorsese’s work is something that I’m just not getting tired of watching. As the obsessed and dedicated Marshall Teddy Daniels the steely exterior of his character is a terrific facade for a man who is bubbling with raw emotion and confusion underneath. Ben Kingsley and Mark Ruffalo were effervescent in their supporting roles and gave Leo’s performance the support it needed. Midway through Jackie Earle Hayley gave me a nice surprise in a small, but poignant role. The beautiful Michelle Williams and Emily Mortimer were also implemented in small but very important ways. It was a strong cast that gave DiCaprio the legs he needed to pull off one of the most intense performances of his career.
What is so enrapturing about Shutter Island is that Scorsese pretty much plays a game of Texas no limit hold ‘em. You get to see a lot of the cards, and you are even given some for yourself, but there are unknowns across the table. Putting the pieces together and guessing what the other players have is what you try to do, but sometimes you forget that there are also other cards buried in the deck, and Shutter Island banks on those buried cards at the end. You know a twist is coming, you know you don’t quite understand what’s happening, and even when you get wowed, you aren’t sure that’s end game. It was a spectacular play of mystery and kept you engaged to the final nail biting moments. In the midst of the mystery is a true mix of terrifyingly awful emotional moments that DiCaprio sells as truly genuine.
As good as it was, it was not a perfect film. I’m not sure what happened with the delays on it’s release, as the final project was clearly an enormous triumph. There were moments where I could feel the films length, and though you were supposed to be confused or feel DiCaprio’s claustrophobia it felt too overwhelming at times, and I did find myself squirming in my seat wondering if I was actually getting any closer to an answer or if I was just being manipulated for the sake of being manipulated. As it turned out I wasn’t being manipulated. It was a carefully constructed puzzle that occasionally got a little too wrapped up in it’s own enigma.
The score literally violates your senses it’s so strong. Immediately I thought back to watching “The Omen” the first time and how powerful a role the music played in capturing and creating the films mood. It was a similar experience with Shutter Island. The cinematography felt very oppressive at times, capturing the sense of being a prisoner on the island. This worked very well most of them, but also began to translate too literally to me in the audience.
I might be a bit of a Scorsese fan-girl and by no means was Shutter Island a perfect film, but it certainly was damn good movie that really felt like an updated homage to the kind of thrillers I have grown up adoring. I could easily see this one making it into my Top Ten films of 2010 already. If it doesn’t ten more movies throughout the year are going to blow me away. Is Shutter Island a movie that needs to be seen on the big screen? Not necessarily, but it was the only thing on the marquee that looked at all worth my ten dollars, aside from a repeat viewing of Avatar. What’s going to be exceedingly fun is going back and re-watching it. I really loved this movie and especially enjoyed Leonardo DiCaprio’s performance. Once again a great team between himself and the brilliant Martin Scorsese.
Did you like Shutter Island? Rate it.
Since you took my recommendation of Avatar with great strides I decided to return the favor and go see Shutter Island even though I wasn’t entirely motivated to see it. An hour into the movie, I was thinking ‘why was Heather so up on this film, it is nothign special’, but then the third act hit. I don’t want to ruin anything for people who haven’t seen it yet, but it has one of the ebst endings I’ve seen in a movie. It totally made the first 2 acts awesome. Like you said, going back and watching it again will make for a totally new viewing experience, and I can’t say that about too many movies. Great film!
I’m so glad you liked it! I felt like you did too, that it was a good movie, something eerie that Hitchcock or Kubrick would be proud of, but I wasn’t blown away, and by the end…………wow…….it just made everything you just watched elevated to such an incredible level.
If not for Leo’s performance though, that first hour would have dragged. He pulled it off.
I picked up the book today. Just another thing to go on my “to see” or “to read” stack.
Wooohoo, I’m pumped to see this. I will wait for early next week though
Pace yourself through the first hour or so. Like Cello, you may find yourself wondering what was so unique or incredible about it. The payoff is truly worth it. I haven’t been so taken aback by a finale since Se7en.
Aye Aye Ma’am!
Great write-up! Hopefully I get a chance to see Shutter Island tomorrow, if not definitely sometime during the week.
I’d have to say it’s one of the few things in the theatre worth paying to see right now and even though it’s not a “have to” on the big screen, it’s certainly worth it.
Saw this today and I was so surprised when that final shock came in. This is total proof as to why Scorsese can basically film anything.
I agree. What was so enjoyable to me was that I knew something was going to happen and I watched and yet I was totally thrown off.
You are right. Scorsese can do anything.
I too am a Scorses fan-girl (wait…that’s not right)…and I too am a really big fan of this flick, and seem to be liking it more and more as the memory of it starts to settle in my brain.
I couldn’t agree with you more about the score! It’s very unnerving, and drives the tone during some more unassuming moments, while staying a respectful step back or two during many of the more obvious moments. Hell, I loved how some truly chilling scenes took place in complete silence (after a score-heavy flick like WOLFMAN, that was a welcome switch!).
BTW, I discovered that the reason for the delay was that Paramount didn’t have enough loot left in the coffers to promote it properly last fall…so they decided to stall it until they could give it proper due. Not too sure why they didn’t just push it to next fall though.
Oh…and if you wanna listen, Big Mike and I talk SHUTTER and all things Scorsese in my latest podcast which is online this morning!
Big Mike posted something about it on facebook! I plan to listen to it later today!
It took me two days to see this one but it was awesome. I agree with you on every point and watching this movie made me want to stop watching flicks this week. I just knew that the next movie I watched wouldn’t be close to as good. I was right, I watched the Aqua Teen Hunger Force movie. I cry now!
I watched The Hills Have Eyes afterwards. Failure of choice. It was so awful. lol. Maybe we should have thought things through a little more!
I will write a review in a day or two but I just wanted to drop by and say that I just saw this, and it was absolutely terrific!!
I’m so happy! I knew you would dig it!
I just saw this last night. DiCaprio was amazing in this. He is such a great actor. I love movies that you don’t see everything in the previews and it keeps you at the end of your seat. This was definitely one of those movies. Reading your review was the thing that brought me to that theatre last night Heather. A big thanks!!!
It’s always a relief to know I’ve steered people in the right direction. February can be such a BLAH month for the movies (or too many romcom’s for my liking) and this just stood out profoundly. Thanks for letting me know you saw it George!
Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU for joining the Leonard DiCaprio CAN SO Act Club. For awhile there, I thought I was the only member. He just gets better with age, and I love him paired with Scorsese. They bring out the best in each other.
One thing I noticed about the film is that you can’t separate any of the elements — the acting, the imagery, the score — and have “Shutter Island” work. That’s especially true of the score. I can’t remember the last time movie music had such a huge impact on the mood and my mood.
I’m not sure how anyone can’t be a fan of Leo. Just look at his resume. It’s incredible. Even if you don’t dig his movie choices, his performances are stellar. He’s one of the few actors I’ll see anything for just because he’s in it.
and you are 100% right about the music. It was haunting.