Shutter Island (R)
Mike:
Mike: Tonight I am reviewing Shutter Island
, the new Martin Scorsese movie based on the novel by Dennis Lehane.
I really liked this thriller. This movie is not what you expect. My main complaint, and you have heard it many times before, is that the film is too long. After seeing the trailers, I was sure this was some sort of horror movie. This movie is a thriller plain and simple. So, they may want to rethink the marketing of this film.
I think they should rename the movie Mystery Island and you may want to think of it as an elaborate Scooby Doo adventure. Now I don’t mean that in a bad way. Nothing is what it seems in this story and instead of Scooby and the gang; you as the audience are the investigators.
Leonardo DiCaprio and Mark Ruffalo star as Federal Marshalls Teddy Daniels and Chuck Aule, who are summoned to Shutter Island in 1954. The island is a secure mental facility/prison for the criminally insane. One of the patients has escaped from a completely locked room and seemingly vanished into thin air. Dr Cawley (Ben Kingsley) is the chief psychiatrist and director of the facility. From the beginning it seems that he is not cooperating as fully as he should.
The movie is filled with terrific actors, many of who you will recognize, but not necessarily know their names. The cast includes: Max von Sydow, Michelle Williams, Emily Mortimer, Patricia Clarkson, Jackie Earle Haley, Ted Levine and Elias Koteas. It is guaranteed you have seen them all before in some very good films. Pairing these actors with master director Scorsese guarantees that we see some very fine acting.
Scorsese and DiCaprio are turning out to be an inspired pairing after several outings together. It will take a lot to beat their collaboration on The Aviator, but this movie is pretty good. The cinematography really helps set the mood. Seeing the island and facility that offer no means of escape from above fills you with a sense of dread along the lines of The Shawshank Redemption. The film is not all doom and gloom clichés, as we are treated to sunny scenes outside along with thunderstorms and looming cliffs.
The story is a great mystery full of red herrings. The questions keep adding up. There are a number of dream sequences throughout that help fill in the details. Visually these will both grab you and at times repulse you. Some of these are not for the faint of heart. It’s these dream scenes thrown in to the trailer that steered me in the direction that this was some sort of horror movie. Near the end of Shutter Island you will finally have all the answers that you are looking for, but then unfortunately, it continues for another twenty minutes. That is my only real problem with an otherwise very stylish thriller.
I also have to mention that the music is very overdone, especially at the beginning as the Marshalls arrive at the island. More shades of Scooby Doo?
I give Shutter Island a 3.5 out of 5 overall and a 4 out of 5 for mystery/thriller. Just as you would expect another great film from Martin Scorsese .
