Shutter Island: This is Your Mommy’s Thriller
Listen here, Ghandi! I want the truth! Where did you hide the Snickers bars?
Rating: 9 out of 10
The moment your cast and crew are announced, the bar is set in the minds of your audience. You tell people that Martin Scorsese is directing a new film and the bar moves up a notch from its humble beginnings. You tell people he is getting Leonardo DiCaprio to star in it, click, there’s one more notch. Then you lay on people that the film is based on a Dennis Lehane novel, which might not mean anything to a majority of people, but once you clarify that he is the author behind such stories as Mystic River and Gone Baby Gone, well, now you’ve got their attention. With a quick glace at your expectation pole, you might find this upcoming film to be teetering near the top, almost daring you to shake it off, which is inevitably what happens to most films in this predicament. The bar gets lost in the clouds and the audiences walk out of the theater staring at the ground; but every now and again the pieces slide into place and you just might find yourself glancing at the tip of the pole through a break in the cloud cover. Now is one of those times (so you can leave the raincoats at home).
Shutter Island is a harrowing tale of two Federal Marshalls called to a lonely island that only houses one thing–a psychiatric institute for the criminally insane. The worst of the worst are sent here because there is no hope or possibility of escape. The marshalls are called in due to the recent disappearance of a certain prisoner, vanished right out of her cell like air. As they being to peel back the layers of clinical observation, polite discreteness and congenial denial they find a labyrinth of deceit underneath. Questions are being asked, but not answered, and the marshalls start to wonder whether they are the ones investigating an actual crime or if indeed they are the ones being investigated.
Reaching a pinnacle in your career is a dangerous thing. With each new project people can claim that it is the best thing you’ve ever done, thereby making your next project pale in comparison before you’ve even begun. In some cases artists under that kind of pressure have just given up, chosen not to fight against their own glory in an effort to eclipse it. Martin Scorsese is surely one who has had to battle against the easy way out underneath the weight of his celebrity. From his early exploits with Mean Streets and Taxi Driver to his recent accolades with The Departed, Scorsese has never given up telling stories. It hasn’t been a consistent rising arc for him, with bumps along the way like Gangs of New York, but his name still holds its ring of Hollywood mastery and clout. In Shutter Island, he reminds people why he got that name recognition by going backwards in style and substance, back to the earlier days of thrillers and chillers. Shutter Island plays itself out much more like Hitchcock or Kubrick’s The Shining than anything in today’s cinematic landscape. Scorsese’s breadth of past experience comes to the forefront through his tonal control and tempo while twisting his audience into his personal web.
One of the glorious moments in cinema is witnessing an acclaimed director find his muse. Although there is an overtly sexual tone to that idea, as in Tarantino and Uma Thurman or Rodriguez and Rose McGowan, it is not always the case. Furthermore, very few directors can find two in one lifetime. Scorsese has done just that with his early display of works with Robert De Niro and now with his younger go-to-guy, Leonardo DiCaprio, who has starred in four films under the Scorsese banner: Gangs of New York, The Aviator, The Departed and of course, Shutter Island. The best thing about this dynamic duo is they seem to be bringing out the best in each other. Although The Departed was fantastic, I actually think DiCaprio’s performance here was more demanding and more fulfilling. The same goes for Scorsese, although I feel Shutter Island is more on par with The Departed instead of outdoing it. Other actors also gave their all in this twisted mind-bender, like the always rewarding Mark Ruffalo, the continually mischievous Max von Sydow and the man with an unending sense of power and grace, Ben Kingsley. Everyone played their parts with extraordinary poise and gratitude for the other actors on screen and watching that ability to share the spotlight never fails to delight.I would also be terribly remiss if I didn’t give accolades to the great cameo monologue by Jackie Earle Haley. Very rarely does a man disappear from Hollywood for such a long time and then erupt back on the scene and make us wonder, “How the hell did that guy get away from us before?” I don’t think we’ll be making that same mistake twice.
The End of the Page Recommendation: If you are a fan of Hitchcock or the original The Shining, you should fit right in on the island. If you are not someone who enjoys a good twist, well, maybe just check out The Island instead. No thinking required in that one.
Tags: acting, alfred hitchcock, ben kingsley, dennis lehane, fiction, film noir, gangs of new york, gone baby gone, jackie earle haley, leonardo dicaprio, mark ruffalo, martin scorsese, max von sydow, mean streets, movie, mystic river, opinion, quentin tarantino, review, robert de niro, robert rodriguez, rose mcgowan, shutter island, stanley kubrick, taxi driver, the aviator, the departed, the island, the shining, thriller, uma thurman
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