2010: The Year in Film - Shutter Island Review

Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, Goodfellas, Mean Streets, Casino, Gangs of New York, The Departed.. Martin Scorsese is widely considered America's greatest living film director - a title that is now his by default given the way Spielberg and Lucas have been spending the last decade largely fudging up their own formidable legacies.. and Coppola hardly works anymore. While other directors at a similar station in life - decorated, celebrated, wealthy and influential, sit back on their laurels - Scorsese continues to take chances and make his indelible mark on American film, well into his 60's. What does criticism of Scorsese consist of? His current work isn't like his 70's films? Is that a valid criticism? Who among us is exactly like we were 5 years ago, let alone 35? If an artist does the same thing over and over for 40 years, we consider him to be a one-trick pony - see Spielberg, Steven. Scorsese made films rife with angst as a young man, when we are all filled with angst, and now makes films with the trained, reserved eye of an auteur. This is only a bad thing if you assume that you know better than the artist himself - that you know what he or she "should" be doing - like an artist isn't capable of choosing for himself what direction to take with his life's work. The Departed, Gangs of New York, The Aviator and now Shutter Island are not the same as Scorsese's 70's work, but are they significantly worse? Only if you, the consumer, are incapable of accepting anything different or new, like a high school kid who writes "don't change.." in someone's year book and then attempts to hold someone to this request. I wouldn't trust anyone who's the same at 30 as they are at 65, what sort of bizarre life would that be?

Shutter Island is a work by Dennis Lehane, one of the best authors working today. You probably haven't heard of him because he writes predominately crime novels, and as far as the literati are concerned, crime writing is a lesser form a literature. All I care about is the prose, description, characters and plot involved, and when it comes to that, Lehane is a master. He's written 5 novels surrounding private investigator partners Angie Gennaro and Patrick Kenzie (one of which is "Gone Baby Gone" - an underrated film), Mystic River (one of the best films of the 2000s), Coronado (a collection of short stories), Shutter Island and The Given Day, a novel about the 1919 Boston Police Department Strike that will be one hell of a movie once they figure out how to make it.

So what happens when one of my favorite directors and one of my favorite authors cross paths? Hopefully Nirvana -

SHUTTER ISLAND
First of all, fuck Paramount. This film was initially slated for an October 2009 release, but Paramount pushed it back to a February 2010 release and blamed it on the economy, saying they couldn't afford to push another major release in 2009, despite the fact that the studio had both Star Trek and Transformers in 2009, the 2nd and 4th highest grossing films. I first read the book after I knew the film was being released and who was playing who, so I read the book through that lens. Let me say that Mark Ruffalo and Ben Kinsley are inspired casting, and I'm not sure what young actor could have played U.S. Marshall Teddy Daniels other than Mr. DiCaprio. (say what you want about Leo, but the state of acting today is, plain and simply, that there aren't a whole lot of capable actors out there under 40.. you've got Damon, DiCaprio, Depp, Bale, and Ed Norton (who never works) - so who on that list is going to play a Boston-based U.S. Marshall in 1955? - I thought so)

The story, without giving anything away, is that Leo and Mark Ruffalo play U.S. Marshalls sent to mysterious Shutter Island, a Federal Penetentiary and Mental institution for the criminally insane, all violent offenders, the only facility of its kind in the world to investigate the disappearance of a female inmate. All is not as it seems on Shutter Island, and our Marshals soon find themselves in well over their heads as their investigation gains layer after layer and is frustrated by the staff and administrators of Shutter Island, all of whom seem to have something to hide..

This is an old-school Thriller of the Hitchcockian vein, where the impending sense of dread is due not to visceral, physical threat, but rather what we don't know and what's going on in the character's heads. It shortly becomes clear that all is not as meets the eye, as Teddy is a man who's deeply troubled by a series of traumas in his life and the institution may in fact be so much more than merely a mental hospital.



In the hands of lesser talent, this film could have quickly degenerated into pulpy B-movie schlock, but Scorsese's master hand manages to relentlessly ramp up the sense of tension all the way to the film's shocking conclusion. Scorsese has never made a film like this before - and while it may not be as meaningful or significant on a macro level as something like Goodfellas or Taxi Driver, it is by no means a blemish on Marty's stellar filmography. He employs narrative devices like flashbacks and dream sequences perfectly to add to both the character's and yours, the audiences' sense of "what the fuck is going on here?" that never really abates until the conclusion. Even having read the book - I was on the edge of my seat. This is the type of film that rewards repeated viewings, I will certainly see it again if only to catch the film's subtleties and nuances. The visuals are spectacular, Kingsley, Ruffalo and DiCaprio are all great (as is Jackie Earle "Rorschach" Haley in a small but significant role) - and all of the film's elements combine to create a top-notch noir pschological thriller.

I think I read the book in about 4 hours over two days, I couldn't put it down, and the film may in fact be an improvement - Scorsese and the screenwriters add some nice touches to DiCaprio's character that really flesh out his persona. All in all, solid performances, great direction, a sharp, clever story and some spectacular visuals make for the best film of 2010 thus far.

8.3/10 - don't miss it if you like movies.