Shutter Island

Shutter Island is a movie that made our “most anticipated movies” list for the second half of 2009, only to be shunted into 2010 by the studio. Relocation be damned, yet again it made our “most anticipated movie” list for 2010. So now that the picture is here, did it meet our expectations? In a word: easily. Ladies and gentlemen, one of the best movies of 2010 has already arrived.

The story of Shutter Island follows Federal Marshall Teddy Daniels (Leonardo DiCaprio) on his assignment to the titular island, which serves as a penitentiary for the criminally insane. Teddy and his partner, Chuck (Mark Ruffalo), have been sent to investigate the disappearance of one of Shutter Island’s prisoner-patients. As their investigation unfolds, it turns out that Teddy has a special interest in the institution, seeking to reveal a conspiracy plot. But nothing at Shutter Island is what it seems, and conspiracy and confusion lead to chaos as Teddy’s investigation takes him deeper and deeper into the madhouse.

Director Martin Scorsese has assembled a brilliant mystery for film fans with Shutter Island. The movie is very much like a puzzle that is slowly assembled throughout the movie’s running time, with much of the picture being obscured or misdirected until the final pieces are in place. Unlike so many psychological thrillers of today, all of the twists and turns in the story feel true to what Scorsese is building throughout, and I can’t wait to revisit the movie now that I’ve seen the final puzzle pieces inserted, just to see how much the truth of the story was in front of the audience’s eyes all along.

Scorsese brings a very ethereal quality to his mystery, quickly making it obvious to perceptive audience members that nothing they see can be completely trusted. Breaking the traditional rules of filmmaking and utilizing older techniques for some of the visual effects, Scorsese makes a movie that jumps abruptly at times and looks like the product of another era. Abrupt breaks in the narrative as Teddy remembers harsh moments of his past or hallucinates about his dead wife and a mysterious girl force the audience’s attention on the story, while injecting confusing pieces of the story. All of this adds to the eerie atmosphere that keeps the audience at edge throughout the mystery.

Also helping drive Scorsese’s brilliant picture is an amazing cast. I know many people who criticize DiCaprio for empty performances. To me, he’s always been an actor who can do a marvelous job if he gets the right script, but his better known performances have been some of the shallower roles. With Scorsese, DiCaprio has done some amazing work (particularly The Aviator), but I would submit that his role here as the obsessive Federal Marshall is one of his best performances. The supporting cast, which includes a deeply stoic Ben Kingsley, a haunting performance from Michelle Williams, and an intentionally withdrawn Max von Sydow, all add power and intrigue as the movie’s puzzle is assembled.

As a footnote, I should add that Paramount should be very disappointed by their decision to move this movie away from the awards season contenders and into the relative safety of February. As a film, Shutter Island easily rivals the other Top Picture candidates I’ve seen and could have been another Best Director nomination for Martin Scorsese (and possibly even a win), and I’d put Leonardo DiCaprio’s performance up against the other Best Actor nominees any day. The shift may have been financially driven, but Paramount moved themselves out of a lot of attention and possibly a few statues for the people involved in the movie.

Shutter Island may be one of the most satisfying theatrical experiences I’ve had in some time. Even the criticisms I mentally made note of as I was watching the movie were justified and made sense by the time the story ended. It’s the kind of movie that will stay with you for hours, if not days, as you mentally make sense of moments that felt odd or random in their presentation, but enhance the movie once the final story has been revealed.

-Rafe Telsch