Official Movie Poster
When the trailer for Shutter Island first appeared last year, it suggested a creepy, perhaps a bit “over the top” horror film starring Leonardo DiCaprio, set for an October 2009 release. Partially the result of a bad economy (production studio Paramount claimed an inability to muster the $50-60 million for advertising) and DiCaprio’s unavailability for an international press tour (he was working on his next film by the fall), Shutter Island was held back until February 2010.
February is typically the worst month for movies; box office is down so studios don’t waste their best films during this time. It’s like the bargain bins after Christmas; only the junk no one else wanted is left.
This is unfortunate for Shutter Island, a very good film by legendary director Martin Scorsese (Raging Bull, Goodfellas), but good for the audience. Shutter is a fast moving psychological thriller that gets better as it proceeds, with a payoff that warrants a second viewing in order to appreciate all the little details that may have been missed the first time around.
Set in 1954, DiCaprio is a U.S. Marshall named Teddy Daniels, who travels with his new partner (Mark Ruffalo) to Shutter Island, where a hospital for the criminally insane is reporting a strange disappearance of one of their patients. The hospital’s psychiatrist (the great Ben Kingsley) tells the investigators that the missing patient is a woman who murdered her own children and has created a delusional world to avoid facing the guilt for her actions.
The island has the oppressive feeling of a prison colony, and Daniels is not only dealing with the strange circumstances of a case which seems impossible to solve; he is also haunted by flashbacks of Nazi concentration camp atrocities he witnessed in World War II and grief over the murder of his wife.
Daniels admits to his partner that he requested assignment to the Shutter Island case because the man he thinks responsible for his wife’s death is also a patient in the hospital.
Already tasked with finding a woman who seems to have vanished into thin air, Daniels’ obsession with the suspect of his wife’s murder threatens to unhinge him.
DiCaprio cannot really be described as a great actor who can tackle any role, but in this film he perfectly captures the soul of a man who cannot let go of his grief, no matter what the cost.
Mark Ruffalo is very good as always. More than just a partner, he is Daniels’ lifeline in a place that seems to inspire madness instead of treat it. Kingsley manages a balance of medical humanity and bureaucratic obfuscation.
Director Scorsese employs his usual visual flair. Life on Shutter Island seems gray and muted, dream sequences and memory flashbacks are bathed in harsh colors, sharp enough to cut. As events progress, the world around Daniels and his partner seems to close in, becoming more foreboding.
Audiences may feel misled by the film’s trailer. Shutter Island is not a “torture porn” scare-fest along the lines of Saw or Hostel.
Although disturbing images abound, the thrills are more of the psychological nature, and those who rely on a high body count to be entertained will be disappointed. Scorsese’s films focus less on the events and more on their effect on characters in the story.
Shutter Island ranks among his best in the last decade, and is a welcome piece of high quality entertainment in an otherwise graveyard of movie releases. It lingers with the viewer and holds up under reflection.