Shutter Island
Making Dennis Lehane’s best selling novel Shutter Island into a movie
was never going to be easy. With its long and convoluted ending and
structure that dipped into a number of different genres, director
Martin Scorsese had his work cut out for him. It also ran into some
delays during production that were blamed on various reasons including
the downturn in the global economy. This also bumped the film into the
Oscar awards never never land and will not be up for any awards in this
year’s ceremony, a move that did little to please its main star
Leonardo DiCaprio.
The film starts out with a boat ride that would be helped by a shot of
Dramamine as U.S. Marshal Teddy Daniels (DiCaprio) and his partner
Chuck Aule (Mark Ruffalo) are sent to a hospital for the criminally
insane located on an isolated island to investigate the disappearance
of one of its patients. This sets off a chain of events that will push
the already unstable Marshal to and over the edge.
The movie’s trailer to the contrary, the film is more of a
psychological thriller than an outright horror story and from the first
frame on things seems strange and edgy. The first strains of the film
score are also abrasive and over stated as if the filmmaker wants you
to not get comfortable. The events that unravel from there redefine the
main characters and the viewer needs to pay attention.
If this film’s ultimate success is dependent on return patronage, it’s
got the bases covered because a twist in the film’s ending will have
you wanting to see the film again to examine all the clues that lead up
to it. Scorsese has had an uneven run with his last few films and while
Shutter Island is no classic, it’s still a lot of fun and takes some
detecting from the audience to fully enjoy.
Rob Hudson www.shutterisland.com
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