Movie: Shutter Island

Starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Mark Ruffalo, Ben Kingsley; directed by Martin Scorsese

Shutter Island is an imposing, isolated place, which houses an asylum for the criminally insane.

Federal marshalls Teddy Daniels (DiCaprio) and Aule (Ruffalo) have been assigned a case on Shutter Island: a patient at the institute has gone missing.

Set in 1954, Shutter Island serves up plenty of atmosphere to provide suspense on its own, even without the storyline.

The period setting of the film is very well done: from the suits of the marshalls to the suspicion of the fairly nascent medical field of psychiatry – Scorseses certainly knows how to set a scene.

Daniels has baggage from his past: a soldier in World War II, he still has flashbacks to the liberation of the concentration camp Dachau, and to the death of his wife in an apartment fire. As he deals with his own demons, Daniels prepares to take on those of Shutter Island as well.

He's blocked everywhere he turns as conspiracy builds up on conspiracy and lies and red herrings lead to more lies, and more red herrings.

Scorsese and DiCaprio have worked together before to great results in The Aviator and The Departed: complex films that don't talk down to the audience – it assumes that they're intelligent beings who can follow a complicated story with human and flawed characters.

And what about Shutter Island? Well. It's closer in theme and tone to Cape Fear, But Shutter Island is a weaker film. It's stacked to the gills with top talent – DiCaprio, Ruffalo and Kingsley for starters – but the story is ultimately a let-down, with the "twist" being one rung on the film narrative ladder above "he woke up and it was all a dream".

Both Scorsese and DiCaprio have done the best with what they have, and the last line in the film does redeem it somewhat, but they're both far too talented to be idling their time in Sunday night TV-movie fare like this.

- © Fairfax NZ News

Newest First

Oldest First

pierre123   #1   01:25 pm Mar 22 2010

I loved it soooooooooo!!! much

Ad Feedback