Shutter Island

Martin Scorsese takes a break from his traditional but very well made gangster genre and decides instead to turn his focus to suspense in Shutter Island. From all the previews I saw I was expecting a rather radical, surrealist, beautifully vivid yet dark and edge-of-your-seat thriller where the distinction between dreams and reality was slim at best. The first thing I should say is that I felt a little misled, but that's not necessarily a bad thing.

Scorsese's muse, Leo DiCaprio, leads the way as the gruff and tortured federal marshal Teddy Daniels along with his new partner Chuck (Mark Ruffalo). The year is 1952, and they've been brought into an investigation of a missing inmate on Shutter Island, a place much like Alcatraz for the criminally insane. Ben Kingsley and Max Von Sydow round out the main cast as the top doctors who run the facility. Almost immediately after arriving on the island, things turn creepy, and the more they investigate, the more they realize that nothing is as it seems.

And that's about all I can say without giving things away.

Right off the bat it was fairly apparent Scorsese wasn't used to suspense, as the expository dialogue on the ship ride to the island was stilted, the shots cut together were rather sloppy, there's a brief flashback of nonsense images that feels out of place for the start of a movie, and the music that overlays DiCaprio and Ruffalo approaching the gate into the institution was heavy handed instrumental BIG SUSPENSE IT'S SCARY kind of music while the shots themselves were more subdued and would've been much better complemented by a subtle soundtrack.

But once he gets that initial crap out of the way, the movie starts to soar. Both Kingsley and Sydow are masters of subtlety and are well placed in their roles, constantly making you guess at what they're doing and what's really going on. DiCaprio shines, or rather smolders, as the tortured detective who looks more and more haggard as the movie wears on. Ruffalo kind of seemed out of place as a cop, but I think that might have just been an acting choice on his part. Patricia Clarkson and Jackie Earle Haley each show up for about 10 minutes and almost steal the movie for themselves.

Where I was led astray was in thinking this would be a surrealist and vivid play on dreams and reality. While the dream sequences certainly carry a kind of surreal quality to them, it's quickly revealed that they're riffs on or portions of memories and only serve to add depth to DiCaprio's character instead of making you question the line between reality and dreams. Nonetheless it's still very effective, as most of the imagery is quite haunting and draws you into the shambles of a life detective Daniels leads.

The really unfortunate thing is that parts of the overall plot are pretty predictable, though some of the final twists were still quite surprising. If you're really gullible or haven't seen many movies with a twist ending, I am a little envious, because it was harder to lose myself in this movie and truly enjoy it once I figured out one of the big reveals.

Nonetheless, Shutter Island is a well crafted, well acted, and well directed (minus the beginning on all accounts) movie that will have you fully invested in traveling with it down the rabbit hole.

Shutter Island gets an 8.5/10