Movie Review - Shutter Island

To say that Martin Scorsese’s body of work is impressive is an understatement. He’s become one of the most accomplished filmmakers of all time, directing classics like Taxi Driver, Goodfellas and Raging Bull. Generally Scorsese’s best works are crime-based dramas, chock full of mobsters, gunfights, and plenty of suspense. But he steps out of his element in his latest feature, Shutter Island (based on the novel by Dennis Lehane), keeping the suspense but ditching the gangsters in a mystery movie with horror undertones. With his golden boy Leonardo Dicaprio back for another leading role, the pieces are in place for Scorsese to take on a new genre. Too bad that when the credits roll you may find yourself asking, “That’s it?”

Set in 1954, Shutter Island follows U.S. Marshals Teddy Daniels (Di Caprio) and Chuck Aule (Mark Ruffalo), who arrive at Ashecliffe Hospital on the fog-filled Shutter Island to investigate the disappearance of one of the facility’s criminally insane patients. As soon as they get through the gate, the hospital’s guards take their guns and reiterate that they have authority on the island. The marshals are then escorted to see the head of the facility, Dr. Cawley (played with unintentional comical exaggeration by Ben Kingsley), and the two detectives proceed to interview various patients about the missing girl. There is an attempt at humor in some of these interviews, but sometimes it feels as if Scorsese is reaching for laughs.

Daniels begins to get painful headaches accompanied by increasingly disturbing delusions. His dead wife (Michelle Williams) keeps showing up and delivering cryptic messages. He starts experiencing flashbacks of his time as a soldier in World War II. These flashbacks give the movie it’s R-Rating, as Scorsese demonstrates his trademark excessive gore and violence. These are also some of the more memorable moments, highly stylistic and sometimes creepy. Daniels begins to suspect that maybe Cawley and his men are somehow causing the delusions. He gradually loses trust in everybody around him, and soon ventures out on his own to find some answers, eventually stumbling upon the big secret.

It’s not that Shutter Island is all bad. After a sluggish start, the mystery begins to build up through the middle hour, sure. There’s a fair share of suspense and atmosphere too. But any thriller-savvy viewer should see the ending coming from a mile away (or rather two hours away). It feels more like an M. Night Shyamalan (in The Village mode not The Sixth Sense mode) movie than a Scorsese movie. At times we get sucked into the plot’s mystery, but a little voice in our head keeps saying, “get ready for a twist.” Rather than focusing on any kind of character development, Shutter Island centers on misleads and plot twists, genre clichés. Even though the imagery in Daniel’s delusions is interesting, it seems as though Scorsese is just trying to confuse the viewer, throw us off. If this were just another popcorn flick from some no-name director, we’d hope for less, but for a filmmaker of Scorsese’s caliber, we want something fresh or new, not the same clichés we’ve seen time after time.

Scorsese is not the only one at fault here. There’s a general awkwardness between the actors. The burden has to fall partially on screenwriter Leata Kalogridis’ shoulders for being unable to transition the book’s dialogue to the screen more smoothly. Most of the dialogue feels contrived and unnatural. One scene in particular sticks out. Daniels is found wandering through the woods by the Warden (Ted Levine). First of all, the movie is about an hour and a half deep, and the Warden hadn’t even had a line yet. He asks Daniels, “Did you enjoy God’s latest gift?” Daniels looks at him, confused. “God’s gift, the violence,” the Warden continues. The two of them proceed to have an awkward conversation about violence. It becomes painstakingly clear that this conversation is just an attempt to give the movie a theme.

After Di Caprio showed his talent in 2002’s Gangs of New York, 2006’s The Departed, and his Oscar nominated performance in 2004’s The Aviator (all with Scorsese); it seemed like a sure thing that he would continue his run of dominance in this one. Not so. Just like the film itself, Di Caprio falls short of expectations. While he does display some powerful emotion when he’s alone, his interactions with the other characters in the film just don’t feel real. On top of that, his Bostonian accent becomes nauseating, as he takes on a more extreme version his Departed dialect.

Do not go into Shutter Island expecting more than a run-of-the-mill thriller with some interesting images and some sub-par acting. If you expect Scorsese to reinvigorate the genre, or even to bring something new to it, you will be let down.