Matt Shea
RubySoho
Morgan Bell
Cibbuano
David O'Connell
Mountain Fog
Shutter Island
February 24th 2010 04:39
by Matt Shea
It’s difficult to know what Martin Scorsese is up to these days. Once the toast of New Hollywood, Scorsese was responsible for a series of blistering films based around vivid characters.
Not so much, anymore, it seems. Scorsese is now a veteran filmmaker, and maybe it shows in his choice or projects over the past few years: gone are the highly visceral character studies and in their place we find slick but often bloated genre pics. The Departed was a sub par remake of a flawed but effective Hong Kong police thriller, and now there’s Shutter Island, which plays like Scorsese’s turn at making The Shining.
Maybe it’s the choice of source material, which I haven’t read, but Shutter Island is a film fat with ideas, themes, red herrings and premises, but short on character and therefore satisfaction for the viewer.
It’s 1954 with Leonardo DiCaprio playing the role of Teddy Daniels, a federal marshal struggling to reconcile himself with the recent death of his wife and also his part in the liberation of Dachau nine years earlier. Daniels has been assigned to investigate the disappearance of a patient from Ashecliffe Hospital, a clinic for the criminally insane located on the ominous Shutter Island, 11 miles off the coast from Boston.
Joining Daniels is his new partner, Chuck Aule (Mark Ruffalo), and together the men attempt to tackle what seems to be an extraordinary disappearance: the patient in question, Rachel Solano, has escaped from her locked and barred cell almost as if by an illusion.
As the two agents dig for information, they begin to feel the hospital’s director, Doctor Cawley (Ben Kingsley) and his legion of staff are chicaning their progress. And when it is revealed that the hospital is funded by the House Un-American Activities Committee, both the mystery and Daniels’s erratic behaviour threaten to spiral beyond comprehension.
It’s an intriguing idea and the opening 20 minutes underline Scorsese’s skill as a filmmaker. The initial premise is quickly set up and DiCaprio and Ruffalo given some solid ground from which to build their characters: they make for an engaging pair, DiCaprio’s Daniels is aggressively confrontational, his approach tempered by Aule’s more considered approach.
These establishing scenes are framed by some jaw-dropping photography from Robert Richardson and given extra kick by Robbie Robertson’s musical direction, which throughout the film samples classical music (eventually, a little tiresomely) much like Scorsese has in the past used rock and borrowed movie compositions.
But as Shutter Island moves into its middle act it begins to suffer a serious slowing in momentum. The premise shifts awkwardly a couple of times, red herrings are introduced, and the film becomes weighed down with large tracts of exposition. Before you have a strong grip on Daniels's character, the nefarious island is slowly pulling him apart and it’s hard to care too much. By the end of this very long experience you’re well prepared for the final reveal, one that is once again detailed in laborious long form.
Perhaps screenwriter Laeta Kalogridis hewed a little too closely to the source material: There’s at least one instance where two characters should have been combined into one, for example, and you’re left with the feeling that an easy 20 minutes could have been culled from the running time.
Still, this is a Scorsese picture: as such there were perhaps always going to be virtues scattered about the rocky terrain of Shutter Island, and other than the slick technical credits the film features some strong performances from its impressive cast.
DiCaprio initially seems a little out of place as Daniels – a fat-faced boy in a man’s clothing – but Scorsese’s modern muse delivers a determined performance in a role that’s rather demanding. Ruffalo, an under recognised talent who comes across in Shutter Island’s trailer as a mute sidekick, is also excellent as Daniels's more thoughtful partner. In the smaller roles, Kingsley underplays beautifully as the pleasant but slightly off Doctor Cawley, while rent-a-baddie John Carroll Lynch turns in a typically sinister performance as the facility’s deputy warden.
Ultimately this is a genre pic turned inside out. Where genre should be lean and efficient, Shutter Island is bloated, flawed and lacking in character, a desk piled high with ideas and paper weighted with a variety of themes and premises. Make no mistake: this is better than your average Multiplex experience and comes loaded with memorable elements, but you can’t help but leave the theatre wondering if Shutter Island could have been a lot better.
I say: A flawed film that won’t be remembered as one of Scorsese’s best.
See it for: One of the most unintentionally hilarious uses of a whiteboard ever.
*This picture is from IGN
It’s difficult to know what Martin Scorsese is up to these days. Once the toast of New Hollywood, Scorsese was responsible for a series of blistering films based around vivid characters.
Not so much, anymore, it seems. Scorsese is now a veteran filmmaker, and maybe it shows in his choice or projects over the past few years: gone are the highly visceral character studies and in their place we find slick but often bloated genre pics. The Departed was a sub par remake of a flawed but effective Hong Kong police thriller, and now there’s Shutter Island, which plays like Scorsese’s turn at making The Shining.
Maybe it’s the choice of source material, which I haven’t read, but Shutter Island is a film fat with ideas, themes, red herrings and premises, but short on character and therefore satisfaction for the viewer.
It’s 1954 with Leonardo DiCaprio playing the role of Teddy Daniels, a federal marshal struggling to reconcile himself with the recent death of his wife and also his part in the liberation of Dachau nine years earlier. Daniels has been assigned to investigate the disappearance of a patient from Ashecliffe Hospital, a clinic for the criminally insane located on the ominous Shutter Island, 11 miles off the coast from Boston.
Joining Daniels is his new partner, Chuck Aule (Mark Ruffalo), and together the men attempt to tackle what seems to be an extraordinary disappearance: the patient in question, Rachel Solano, has escaped from her locked and barred cell almost as if by an illusion.
As the two agents dig for information, they begin to feel the hospital’s director, Doctor Cawley (Ben Kingsley) and his legion of staff are chicaning their progress. And when it is revealed that the hospital is funded by the House Un-American Activities Committee, both the mystery and Daniels’s erratic behaviour threaten to spiral beyond comprehension.
It’s an intriguing idea and the opening 20 minutes underline Scorsese’s skill as a filmmaker. The initial premise is quickly set up and DiCaprio and Ruffalo given some solid ground from which to build their characters: they make for an engaging pair, DiCaprio’s Daniels is aggressively confrontational, his approach tempered by Aule’s more considered approach.
These establishing scenes are framed by some jaw-dropping photography from Robert Richardson and given extra kick by Robbie Robertson’s musical direction, which throughout the film samples classical music (eventually, a little tiresomely) much like Scorsese has in the past used rock and borrowed movie compositions.
But as Shutter Island moves into its middle act it begins to suffer a serious slowing in momentum. The premise shifts awkwardly a couple of times, red herrings are introduced, and the film becomes weighed down with large tracts of exposition. Before you have a strong grip on Daniels's character, the nefarious island is slowly pulling him apart and it’s hard to care too much. By the end of this very long experience you’re well prepared for the final reveal, one that is once again detailed in laborious long form.
Perhaps screenwriter Laeta Kalogridis hewed a little too closely to the source material: There’s at least one instance where two characters should have been combined into one, for example, and you’re left with the feeling that an easy 20 minutes could have been culled from the running time.
Still, this is a Scorsese picture: as such there were perhaps always going to be virtues scattered about the rocky terrain of Shutter Island, and other than the slick technical credits the film features some strong performances from its impressive cast.
DiCaprio initially seems a little out of place as Daniels – a fat-faced boy in a man’s clothing – but Scorsese’s modern muse delivers a determined performance in a role that’s rather demanding. Ruffalo, an under recognised talent who comes across in Shutter Island’s trailer as a mute sidekick, is also excellent as Daniels's more thoughtful partner. In the smaller roles, Kingsley underplays beautifully as the pleasant but slightly off Doctor Cawley, while rent-a-baddie John Carroll Lynch turns in a typically sinister performance as the facility’s deputy warden.
Ultimately this is a genre pic turned inside out. Where genre should be lean and efficient, Shutter Island is bloated, flawed and lacking in character, a desk piled high with ideas and paper weighted with a variety of themes and premises. Make no mistake: this is better than your average Multiplex experience and comes loaded with memorable elements, but you can’t help but leave the theatre wondering if Shutter Island could have been a lot better.
I say: A flawed film that won’t be remembered as one of Scorsese’s best.
See it for: One of the most unintentionally hilarious uses of a whiteboard ever.
*This picture is from IGN
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Comment by Mountain Fog
kind of makes me think of Seven, which I know had a lot of fans, but that left me a little disappointed too.
and loved the paper weighted imagery you wrascally wabbitt!!
cheers
fog
Comment by Matt Shea
20/20 Filmsight
Se7en is certainly a film that divided people - it's been too long since I've seen it to make a comparison, though.
Glad you enjoyed the article! Thanks for reading.
Comment by David O'Connell
Screen Fanatic
Read the novel about 3 or 4 years ago and loved it but never really envisaged it as a Scorsese type of project.
I really wish he'd do a film or two without DiCaprio - as good as he is of course.
Coincidentally I've just come back from a night of Scorsese at the Melbourne Cinematheque. Saw a couple of early shorts from his NY film school days, then Who's that Knocking at My Door, and to top it off, After Hours - damn it stands up well, such a classic dark comedy. Full of more weirdos than most of us meet in a lifetime!!
Comment by David O'Connell
Screen Fanatic
Comment by Matt Shea
20/20 Filmsight
I agree about DiCaprio. I haven't really liked him in the past, and although he's starting to grow on me and was one of the better elements of Shutter, I think it's time the two of them spent some time apart(!).
Never seen Knocking, but After Hours is excellent, and often forgotten unfortunately.
Comment by RubySoho
Music Zone
Thought Zone
I agree the second act lags but there are enough good questions raised to make the effort of watching it worthwhile.
* WARNING: SPOILER ALERT!*
The really interesting point is we know these sorts of mind control experiments were going on at the time (Dr Ewan Cameron being the most well known example) and are still continuing to a degree in institutions such as Guantanamo (at least they were under Bush and Cheney), not lobotomies as such but sleep deprivation, psycho tropic drugs etc. Dr Cameron's patient's were often admitted for minor disorders such as anxiety and were subjected to a such horrific 'treatments' they never fully recovered.
So the question is, how much of it was Teddy's insanity and how of it was real?
Comment by RubySoho
Music Zone
Thought Zone
Gah. Now I sound like a conspiracy theorist.
Comment by Matt Shea
20/20 Filmsight
MORE SPOILERS
Absolutely, the film's grounding in real events is certainly one of its strengths. I enjoyed the concept of trying to figure out the degree to which Teddy had lost it, but I just wish they'd implemented it a bit better in the second half. Nevertheless, I think the final scene is quite effective.
As for Paperclip - is that regarded as a conspiracy? I've always been under the impression that it was an actual tactic to keep the German brains out of the hands of the Soviets. In any case, I swallowed the reference.
Comment by RubySoho
Music Zone
Thought Zone
That's actually one of my disappointments with this film. Because it did discuss these taboos but then resolved them by putting them down to Teddy's delusions, it actually makes it seem like the very notion that the institution would be experimenting on its patients was ridiculous, when of course it would have been quite possible.
That's why I had to see it again, just in case I missed something and I will repeat, despite my misgivings with the resolution, it really improves with the second viewing, especially DiCaprio's performance.
Comment by Matt Shea
20/20 Filmsight
Exactly, and you can't help but feel a viewer's reception of such an idea (the US experimenting on its own people) is going to affect how satisfying/confusing they find the conclusion.
I do agree re: DiCaprio's performance - I'm generally not a fan, but it's a demanding role and he really throws himself into it.