Director: Martin Scorsese
Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Mark Ruffalo, Ben Kingsley, Michelle Williams, Patricia Clarkson, Emily Mortimer, Max von Sydow
Running Time: 138 minutes (plus trailers)
"You're like a rat in a fucking maze"
His follow up to The Departed, the film that won him a long overdue Oscar for Best Director, Shutter Island is the latest motion picture from Martin Scorsese, one of the all time great American filmmakers whose seminal works include Taxi Driver, Goodfellas and Raging Bull. Based on a novel by Dennis Lehane, Scorsese’s latest is a sinister psychological thriller set in the 1950’s starring Leonardo DiCaprio as Agent Teddy Daniels, a U.S. Marshall who is sent with his new partner to Ashcliffe Hospital for the Criminally Insane to investigate the mysterious disappearance of a dangerous female patient. Once the Marshall’s arrive they find themselves up against not only the delusional patients but uncooperative nurses and guards who seem intent on hampering the investigation at every turn. Already distrustful of the institution, Daniels soon becomes convinced that all is not right on Shutter Island. But as he is tormented by nightmarish visions of his dead wife and his experiences during the war, he begins to lose a grip on what is real and what is not.
To say that Shutter Island reminded me of Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining is to pay it a compliment of the highest possibly degree; Kubrick’s masterpiece of terror is undisputedly one of the finest horror films ever made, and whilst Shutter Island isn’t quite on the same level, the two films do share a lot in common, both in their exploration of madness and in the mesmerizing imagery that their respective visionary directors employ. And truly we are talking about two of the greatest filmmakers of all time; as Kubrick did in his film, the mood that Scorsese is able to generate from the opening credits – employing eerily beautiful cinematography, dreamlike editing, a haunting score and jarring sound design (and I use the word “jarring” in a positive sense – think again of The Shining) is one of constant unease. It is enormously gratifying to watch filmmaking of such a high quality, to see a movie in which visuals and sound are combined to create a near perfect atmosphere of tension and suspense.
Conversely, the actual story of Shutter Island is fairly formulaic and the so called twist ending can be predicted within the opening ten minutes (or by anyone who saw the films trailer). But honestly, I didn’t care. To me the experience of watching the film was less about the story and more about the ambiance, finding pleasure in appreciating everything Scorsese had done. I don’t want to keep come back to The Shining, but in that film the story is almost indecipherable yet the incredible imagery and sound make it an inescapably terrifying experience. For a more recent example, take a film from last year that I adored but everyone else seemed to hate: Richard Kelly’s The Box. Now in terms of story these too film a very different; Shutter Island could be accused of being too simple, whereas Kelly’s film was needlessly complicated. But so intoxicating is the mood in that film that the ridiculous story was never an issue for me, and the same can be said of Shutter Island.
It is such a shame then that in the last fifteen minutes, Scorsese (presumably following the path of the novel) chose to focus intently on the movie’s plot. As I said before, the twist is very easy to see coming, but this didn’t necessarily have to kill the film. There is a certain point where the movie could have just ended, leaving a mystical ambiguity to the true nature of Teddy’s mental state. Instead we are offered a very long scene of exposition in which one of the characters lays out the entire film for us, removing all doubt and leaving us with a largely unsatisfying conclusion that leaves no room for different interpretations. Scorsese still shows moments of directorial brilliance in this last act and I must admit that the movies final line (a kind of twist on top of the twist) was very clever. Still, when the reveal is so uninteresting, I think it might have been better to never reveal it at all.
Another staple of a Scorsese film is that he manages to get fantastic performances from his actors. Ben Kingsley and Max von Sydow are both terrifically creepy as the hospitals two leading psychiatrists, whilst Ted Levine, Jackie Earle Haley and Elias Koteas are all sensational despite each of them only appearing in a single scene. And Leonardo DiCaprio in the lead continues to prove himself to be one of the best A-list actors in Hollywood, capturing his character’s frustrations, fears and vulnerabilities with incredible skill, and I believe that the DiCaprio/Scorsese partnership is destined to be remembered as one of the all time great actor/director parings. In fact the only real let down in the acting department was Mark Ruffalo as DiCaprio’s partner, which was a shame seeing as he's usually very good.
Although the story of Shutter Island is predictable, every production element is so flawlessly executed that the plot becomes almost an irrelevancy. Based on the general critical reception (good but not great), Shutter Island isn’t going to be remembered as one of Martin Scorseses more landmark films; it’s nothing like the gangster epics that made him famous. What it does demonstrate is that even when he is not reaching for the grand heights of storytelling as he did in a film like Goodfellas, he seemingly cannot help but make an excellent motion picture. He is one of the only directors who I would even consider comparing to Stanley Kubrick, and Shutter Island demonstrates exactly why that is.
Shutter Island is in cinemas now
Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Mark Ruffalo, Ben Kingsley, Michelle Williams, Patricia Clarkson, Emily Mortimer, Max von Sydow
Running Time: 138 minutes (plus trailers)
"You're like a rat in a fucking maze"
His follow up to The Departed, the film that won him a long overdue Oscar for Best Director, Shutter Island is the latest motion picture from Martin Scorsese, one of the all time great American filmmakers whose seminal works include Taxi Driver, Goodfellas and Raging Bull. Based on a novel by Dennis Lehane, Scorsese’s latest is a sinister psychological thriller set in the 1950’s starring Leonardo DiCaprio as Agent Teddy Daniels, a U.S. Marshall who is sent with his new partner to Ashcliffe Hospital for the Criminally Insane to investigate the mysterious disappearance of a dangerous female patient. Once the Marshall’s arrive they find themselves up against not only the delusional patients but uncooperative nurses and guards who seem intent on hampering the investigation at every turn. Already distrustful of the institution, Daniels soon becomes convinced that all is not right on Shutter Island. But as he is tormented by nightmarish visions of his dead wife and his experiences during the war, he begins to lose a grip on what is real and what is not.To say that Shutter Island reminded me of Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining is to pay it a compliment of the highest possibly degree; Kubrick’s masterpiece of terror is undisputedly one of the finest horror films ever made, and whilst Shutter Island isn’t quite on the same level, the two films do share a lot in common, both in their exploration of madness and in the mesmerizing imagery that their respective visionary directors employ. And truly we are talking about two of the greatest filmmakers of all time; as Kubrick did in his film, the mood that Scorsese is able to generate from the opening credits – employing eerily beautiful cinematography, dreamlike editing, a haunting score and jarring sound design (and I use the word “jarring” in a positive sense – think again of The Shining) is one of constant unease. It is enormously gratifying to watch filmmaking of such a high quality, to see a movie in which visuals and sound are combined to create a near perfect atmosphere of tension and suspense.
Conversely, the actual story of Shutter Island is fairly formulaic and the so called twist ending can be predicted within the opening ten minutes (or by anyone who saw the films trailer). But honestly, I didn’t care. To me the experience of watching the film was less about the story and more about the ambiance, finding pleasure in appreciating everything Scorsese had done. I don’t want to keep come back to The Shining, but in that film the story is almost indecipherable yet the incredible imagery and sound make it an inescapably terrifying experience. For a more recent example, take a film from last year that I adored but everyone else seemed to hate: Richard Kelly’s The Box. Now in terms of story these too film a very different; Shutter Island could be accused of being too simple, whereas Kelly’s film was needlessly complicated. But so intoxicating is the mood in that film that the ridiculous story was never an issue for me, and the same can be said of Shutter Island.It is such a shame then that in the last fifteen minutes, Scorsese (presumably following the path of the novel) chose to focus intently on the movie’s plot. As I said before, the twist is very easy to see coming, but this didn’t necessarily have to kill the film. There is a certain point where the movie could have just ended, leaving a mystical ambiguity to the true nature of Teddy’s mental state. Instead we are offered a very long scene of exposition in which one of the characters lays out the entire film for us, removing all doubt and leaving us with a largely unsatisfying conclusion that leaves no room for different interpretations. Scorsese still shows moments of directorial brilliance in this last act and I must admit that the movies final line (a kind of twist on top of the twist) was very clever. Still, when the reveal is so uninteresting, I think it might have been better to never reveal it at all.
Another staple of a Scorsese film is that he manages to get fantastic performances from his actors. Ben Kingsley and Max von Sydow are both terrifically creepy as the hospitals two leading psychiatrists, whilst Ted Levine, Jackie Earle Haley and Elias Koteas are all sensational despite each of them only appearing in a single scene. And Leonardo DiCaprio in the lead continues to prove himself to be one of the best A-list actors in Hollywood, capturing his character’s frustrations, fears and vulnerabilities with incredible skill, and I believe that the DiCaprio/Scorsese partnership is destined to be remembered as one of the all time great actor/director parings. In fact the only real let down in the acting department was Mark Ruffalo as DiCaprio’s partner, which was a shame seeing as he's usually very good.Although the story of Shutter Island is predictable, every production element is so flawlessly executed that the plot becomes almost an irrelevancy. Based on the general critical reception (good but not great), Shutter Island isn’t going to be remembered as one of Martin Scorseses more landmark films; it’s nothing like the gangster epics that made him famous. What it does demonstrate is that even when he is not reaching for the grand heights of storytelling as he did in a film like Goodfellas, he seemingly cannot help but make an excellent motion picture. He is one of the only directors who I would even consider comparing to Stanley Kubrick, and Shutter Island demonstrates exactly why that is.
Shutter Island is in cinemas now
