Directed by:
Martin ScorseseScreenplay:
Laeta KalogridisCinematography:
Robert RichardsonCast:
Leonardo DiCaprio, Mark Ruffalo, Ben Kingsley, Max von Sydow, Michelle Williams, Emily Mortimer, Patricia Clarkson, Jackie Earle Haley, Ted Levine (more)Plots(1)
The year is 1954, at the height of the Cold War, when U.S. Marshal Teddy Daniels (Leonardo DiCaprio) and his new partner Chuck Aule (Mark Ruffalo) are summoned to Shutter Island to investigate the implausible disappearance of a brilliant multiple murderess from a locked room within the impenetrable Ashecliffe Hospital. Surrounded by probing psychiatrists and dangerously psychopathic patients on the remote, windswept isle, they arrive into an eerie, volatile atmosphere that suggests nothing is quite what it seems.
With a hurricane bearing down on them, the investigation moves rapidly. Yet, as the storm escalates, the suspicions and mysteries multiply each more thrilling and terrifying than the next. There are hints and rumors of dark conspiracies, sordid medical experiments, repressive mind control, secret wards, perhaps even a hint of the supernatural, but elusive proof. Moving in the shadows of a hospital haunted by the terrible deeds of its slippery inhabitants and the unknown agendas of its equally ingenious doctors, Teddy begins to sense that the deeper he pursues the investigation the more he will be forced to confront some of his most profound and devastating fears. And he realizes that he may never leave the island alive.
(Paramount Pictures)
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Reviews (17)
Scorsese still knows how to set the right atmosphere, this is a great piece of craft and everybody is acting beautifully, so this movie isn’t just about the message. And luckily so, because after just about ten minutes there would be nothing left to watch. Despite this, I still couldn’t get that niggling thought out of my head that this should have been an episode of Tales from the Crypt and not a hundred and forty minute feature movie. If it weren’t for the opening crossing to the island and the closing approx. thirty seconds, I wouldn’t remember anything at all of this.
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Shutter Island is a bit like certain Brian De Palma movies – they might not be for everyone, but if it’s your cup of tea, you will be left speechless. It begins with a ship arriving at a mysterious island, which in terms of camerawork, editing and the use of scary retro music in the style of Miklós Rózsa is an equally valuable manual to creating an absolutely immersive film opening like the landing at the beginning of Saving Private Ryan. And it ends not as much by making a point that turns the preceding plot upside down (in the world of film scripts, this idea is not all that original anyway), but with a bonus – the last scene and line of the film that pushes “that thriller with DiCaprio people go see en masse” three levels higher. Everything between the beginning and ending can be criticized for occasional cheesiness or chaotic switching between reality and hallucinations (which raises a few hard-to-answer questions) or the cold attitude to its characters. But all of this is part of the director’s cunning game, which is not about raising the audience’s goosebumps over the Ward C maniacs, nor milking their emotions over the fate of the main character. Because this director plays a different kind of game altogether. ___ After the second viewing, my hands were shaking like after smoking a pack of Dr. Cawley’s cigarettes. Shutter Island is an exceptional film from some other dimension.
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“I’ve seen something like it before.” I’m going to throw out some spoilers, so it would be better if you read this after seeing the film. On the first viewing, until the lengthy explanatory passage, Shutter Island is a paranoid crime thriller that draws on Hitchcock’s legacy and horror B-movies. On the second viewing, it is an atmospheric drama laden with the questions that Scorsese has posed throughout his entire filmography (What’s worse, emotional or physical violence? Is it better to stay in one’s accepted role or to reveal one’s true face? To accept guilt or let it consume you?). Unfortunately, the second viewing reveals not only the well-thought-out distribution of clues leading us to the final revelation, but also the film’s inability to work on both levels simultaneously. The pleasure of a skilfully shot, though not entirely smoothly flowing genre movie (the shots don't fit together as elegantly as in Casino, for example) is disrupted by long dialogue scenes in which the Big Issue is addressed, which Scorsese is again unable to properly elaborate on, because he would deprive himself and us of the pleasure taken from the presence of trashy add-ons like Nazis, mass murder, a mysterious lighthouse and a lobotomy. In short, he spoils the fun by trying to squeeze something more out of it, which is manifested in the significant reduction of the funny verbal exchanges between Chuck and Teddy from the book on which the film is based (and which, incidentally, can be read in one breath both as a genre treat and as a suspenseful story that may conceal something more). Therefore, I find it more inspiring to watch Shutter Island, even at the cost of a slight overinterpretation, as a multi-level psychoanalytical treat for all followers of Žižek (Teddy constantly moves between different floors, which we can see as “levels” of his mind; familiar with Teddy’s dreams, Dr. Cawley personifies the subconscious; Chuck, addressing Teddy as “boss”, conversely represents his – seemingly – controlled ego) which with its narrative is – probably unintentionally – reminiscent of a video game (restarting the mission, collecting objects and solving riddles, Teddy as Laeddis’s game avatar…). Choose what makes more sense to you. Regardless of its faults, one visit to Shutter Island will almost definitely not be enough. 85%
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I'm still struggling to find words the day after the screening. The meticulously crafted screenplay is still spinning in my head, the performances are still in front of my eyes, and Martin Scorsese, after the somewhat average The Aviator and a misstep called The Departed, excels so much that it takes my breath away. He plays with Alfred Hitchcock, with Stanley Kubrick, screams his love for old films to the world, and squeezes me every few minutes. At one point, I almost burst into tears out of helplessness, and a few minutes later, I am almost killed by the escalating tension. And the whole time, he has unbelievable control over me, leading me through every corner of Shutter Island however he pleases. At this late stage of his filmography, it is the absolute pinnacle, and at the same time, a diamond that I come back to in my memories like to few others.
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The key questions are: does Shutter Island offer anything more than a well-built but remarkably unbalanced genre story? Isn't the feeling of confusion that comes after watching it actually just a reflection of the inner emptiness of the story that was told? Does the shocking point not only explain, but also justify all the wonders (logical, spatiotemporal and ideological) of the previous events? I can’t say that I’m closer to the answer YES... Which is quite a sad outcome for M. Scorsese's film. Despite the absorbing atmosphere, despite DiCaprio, despite some really great moments, I'm far from appreciating the creative game, however much I am able to accept it. I shake my head helplessly over a work that is a much more effective trick than a thoughtful manipulation. Perhaps if the film stayed away from stray attempts to overlap and admitted without torture that it was ONLY a pure, and at its core a blunt genre film, I would have left the movie theatre more satisfied.
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Photo © Paramount Pictures
![Shutter Island - Photos](http://image.pmgstatic.com/cache/resized/w663/files/images/film/photos/160/402/160402011_c0c6cd.jpg)
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