REELGUY'S REEL REVIEW:
"Shutter Island" well-performed and beautifully rendered but lacking punch
Maine Connection: The movie takes place on Boston Harbor Islands, just a stone’s throw from the Maine coast, ayuh.
Is Oscar-winning director Martin Scorsese slumming with "Shutter Island," his new period, psychological thriller starring Leonardo DiCaprio? I don't think so. It's brave for a director to take on new cinematic challenges and tell a story outside his more familiar genre. Despite that, Scorsese may not have been the best director for the job. While "Shutter Island" has superb performances, scenery, and visual style it has problems with that most core ingredient, visceral thrills.
The basic story is easy to follow. Two U.S. Marshalls are called to an isolated, island mental hospital to investigate the escape of a patient in the early 1950s. DiCaprio is Teddy Daniels, the senior investigator who thinks there's a deeper conspiracy on the island. His new partner, Chuck, is loyal to a fault and maybe a little too easy-going for Teddy. The chief doctor, Dr. Cawley (Ben Kingsley; "House of Sand and Fog") and his colleague Dr. Naehring (Max von Sydow; "Minority Report") appear to be withholding vital information towards the investigation. And some of the mental patients are leaving clues that not all is right with Ashecliffe. Teddy begins to wonder if it's true paranoia when everyone is really out to get you.
While the mystery becomes more and more enticing early on in the film, the clues eventually become too expressionistic and confusing in frequent dream sequences. Scorsese spends a bit too long in the dream world when the viewer really wants to solve the mystery on the island. It is well understood that Marshall Daniels is haunted by a tragedy in his personal life and his role in World War II, the viewer need not see frequent five minute long nightmares to "get it." In this instance, less would have been more. While the scenes are presented beautifully and Scorsese gets the most out of a talented cast; I wished there were more scenes with real danger or imminent threats. Instead, a good portion of the film is simply Teddy exploring the island or the depths of the hospital like a naughty schoolboy going where he doesn't belong instead of a policeman in enemy territory. For murderous mental patients, few seem particularly threatening to the main characters.
"Shutter Island" wants to be "Jacob's Ladder" or "The Usual Suspects" with the story heading in one direction while dropping hints that eventually lead in the opposite. The "gotcha" moment is one of the best scenes in the picture but the lead-up goes a little too long and becomes increasingly ludicrous. DiCaprio loses himself in this gradually unhinging man, showing the fear and pain clearly on his face. The rest of the cast are wonderful and the underlying story, based on a novel, is fascinatingly well-constructed. But the thrills that a thriller is known for are few and don't have the punch a director more familiar with the genre would surely have given it. Maybe Scorsese made too cerebral a picture, trying desperately to balance the real with the unreal. It is a grandiose attempt that has moments of spellbound entertainment but it just can't keep up the intensity. Still, for DiCaprio and Scorsese three great pictures and one good one ain't half bad.
Rated R for disturbing violent content, language and some nudity.
