Film Review with Robert Mann – Shutter Island

14th March 2010

Shutter Island ****

The latest directorial effort from Martin Scorsese has been the source of a fair amount of controversy since Paramount, the studio behind it, made the surprise announcement that it was postponing the film’s release from its original release date last October to February 2010 (March for us in the UK), a decision which put the film out of the running for this year’s Academy Awards. While the move was surprising and difficult to understand at the time, however, now it appears that it may well have been a strategic move on the part of the studio, as Shutter Island – based on the novel of the same name by Dennis Lehane – has gained substantially from facing lesser competition on its release at the US box office, where it is already one of Scorsese’s most lucrative films, having achieved the biggest box office opening weekend of his career to date, and reviews thus far have suggested that the film is far from being one of his best, raising the possibility that perhaps the studio never expected it to do that well at the Oscars anyway. Does this, in any way, reflect badly on the film though? Not really.

In 1954, US marshal Teddy Daniels (Leonardo DiCaprio), a troubled individual traumatised by the death of his wife Dolores Chanal (Michelle Williams) and things he did during his time at war, and his new partner Chuck Aule (Mark Ruffalo) are ordered to investigate the disappearance of a patient from a mental hospital on Shutter Island, a remote outcrop some 11 miles off the coast of Boston. The missing patient is Rachel Solando (Emily Mortimer), a murderess who seems to have defied the high security in the hospital and vanished into thin air. As Teddy begins his investigation, he starts to unearth some sinister goings on but it becomes clear that nobody, including the hospital’s enigmatic chief Dr Cawley (Ben Kingsley), the sinister Dr. Naehring (Max Von Sydow), the Warden (Ted Levine) and Deputy Warden McPherson (John Carroll Lynch), is willing to talk, and the only ones actually saying anything are the patients themselves, including Laeddis (Elias Koteas) and George Noyce (Jackie Earle Haley), but who no one will listen. When a hurricane hits Shutter Island, more inmates manage to escape and Teddy becomes trapped. Now plagued by terrifying visions and doubting everything, including his partner, Teddy begins to question his sanity and fears he’ll never make it off the island alive.

Shutter Island gets off to an excellent start with an opening shot of a boat appearing out of a mist being a terrific example of the kind of cinematography that Martin Scorsese is capable of delivering and from the outset and unnerving sense of dread is established, emanating from virtually every aspect of the film, with absolutely everything – the cinematography, the locations, the performances, the music and the dialogue – contributing to the whole. The first shot of Shutter Island itself creates a very chilling and unsettling look and feel to the place, creating a presence that intensifies as we see more of the place through the character’s explorations, and it only takes seemingly simple shots such as this to create tension and uneasiness. While this it not a horror film, rather a classic style mystery thriller, the film is undeniably chilling in places and Scorsese creates this effect not with cheap tricks or gimmicks like many horror films but through simple, effective and stylish filmmaking techniques. These include the eerie score which creates a sense of menace long before anything actually happens, the superb and sublime cinematography – visually the film is quite stunning, particularly in the flashback/ hallucinaiton scenes and even scenes where it is quite dark are well shot – some low key but well done effects and sharp utilization of and emphasis on sounds. The acting is uniformly excellent with actors in both big and small roles delivering great performances. Leonard DiCaprio delivers another masterful performance as a damaged individual, his character’s descent into madness being really rather impressive; Ruffalo is strong as the partner about whom major questions are raised; Kingsley, Von Sydow, Levine and Lynch all perfectly portray characters who we are completely unsure about morally; and Mortimer, Koteas and Haley are both suitably cast as mental patients. There isn’t a weak link to be found among the cast of cops, doctors, nurses, orderlys and patients, and everyone speaking with convincing, period and location authentic accents. This authenticity is also present in the dialogue the actors speak out, which is realistic and well written and has some other strong attributes as well, notably the way that certain conversations can be interpreted in different ways, i.e. they can seem perfectly straightforward or in another context they also make a character seem insane. Such dialogue is particularly important when it comes to the major plot revelation, a twist which is not entirely original but is very cleverly staged and that seems fairly surprising in the context of the story, playing well into the central character’s personal traumas but not in the way you might necessarily expect. This is, of course, subjective and some viewers may guess where the story is headed beforehand. The writing is the one possible flaw in the film. The writing and plot as a whole are undoubtedly of a high standard but there are several rather long talky scenes that really slow the pace down and these scenes have the effect of making the film somewhat less engrossing than it could be. This isn’t too much of a problem though as in every other aspect the writing is pretty much excellent. The characters are well developed, the emphasis naturally being on Teddy Daniels, whose former life as a married man and as a soldier is effectively shown through the use of flashbacks and hallucinations that both give us insights into the traumatic events he has endured in his past and his current mental state. The plot as a whole is very strong too. Overall, Shutter Island is a very well crafted mystery that is nearly flawless but not quite. Technically superb and delivering genuine tension, it falls short of being a masterpiece and it certainly isn’t Scorsese’s very best film but it nonetheless stands as another superbly made film from the director and one that should not be missed by anyone who loves his works.

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Review by Robert Mann BA (Hons)

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