“Shutter Island”
Written by Laeta Kalogridis, based on the Novel by Dennis Lehane; Directed by Martin Scorsese; Stars Leonardo DiCaprio, Mark Ruffalo, Ben Kingsley and Michelle Williams. Story: set in 1954, U.S. Marshal Teddy Daniels is investigating the disappearance of a murderess who escaped from a hospital for the criminally insane and is presumed to be hiding on the remote Shutter Island.
Seen by Adam and Lars Feb 20, 2010
LARS:
As Adam and I were leaving the theatre, I found myself questioning the way Scorsese shot “Shutter Island”, in particular camera angles. Then all of a sudden I realized what I was doing; I was lecturing Martin Scorsese on how to make movies. Who the fuck do I think I am? You don’t try to improve the work of one of the few living legends of moviemaking, American style. That said, I do think Scorsese makes some interesting and sometimes awkward directorial choices in this movie. One of the drawbacks of being a legend must be that no one questions your choices anymore. Well, Mr. Scorsese, Marty, I apologize in advance, but I’m going to do just that.
How you’re going to experience “Shutter Island” depends on whether you’ve read the book by Dennis Lehane or not. For the story has a secret, and knowing that secret in advance will completely change the way you watch the film. I had read the book, so I probably watched the movie differently than Adam did, knowing what lay in store for us. And that’s how I came to focus more on the mechanics of the storytelling than most viewers of the movie will probably do.
Now, from the above, you may think that I didn’t much like “Shutter Island”. That would be a wrong conclusion. I think it’s a tale well told and it does justice to the book, which I remember reading in one feverish sitting. The acting is solid across the board, the island is suitably spooky and the grand finale made me sit upright in my seat, even knowing what was about to unfold. If I don’t sound the horns from city rooftops about its brilliance, it’s mostly because I have completely different standards for Scorsese than for probably any other living filmmaker. I mean, the man directed “Taxi Driver”, “Raging Bull”, “Goodfellas” and my personal favorite, “After Hours”. When you have those movies in your portfolio, you lose the right to be judged at the same level as mere mortals.
So odd choices like the melodramatic score, the camera with the POV of a car and the tendency to shoot people from below to accentuate their… actually, I’ve no idea what, if anything, those strange ‘from below’ scenes were supposed to accentuate other than the fact that you can place the camera on the floor sometimes, if you want to. But this is me being nitpicky, for sure. If you look at the flick as a nothing but a ride and have always been mortally afraid of ending up in a mental hospital, you’ll surely have a great time watching “Shutter Island”.
As for me, I’m looking forward to seeing what Scorsese will make of the fascinating sounding “The Invention of Hugo Cabret” http://www.amazon.com/Invention-Hugo-Cabret-Brian-Selznick/dp/0439813786/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1266788478&sr=8-1
which is supposed to start shooting in May this year.
ADAM:
This is a tough one; I liked this movie quite a bit, but I didn’t love it. I realize how audacious that is to say about a Scorsese film, but no one can hit the bulls-eye every time. In Shutter Island, the audience is forced to take a long journey for a big reveal that does slap you in the face. That said, the reveal is not entirely original. And regardless of how amazing the ultimate payoff might be, it’s vital that the journey itself be an entertaining one. And as we approach that reveal in the last reel the pace does quicken, but I’d be lying if I didn’t say there were a few times in the first hour I found myself a little bored. There is also some unevenness in the film. This doesn’t come as a total surprise; as you can tell from the one sheet poster above, the film was supposed to come out in the fall of 2009 and be eligible for Oscar balloting. Rumor circulated that the film didn’t test well and needed work. Paramount and Scorsese vehemently deny those rumors, but the fact of the matter is that the film was released in the first two months of the year — when movies (other than romantic comedies coming out on February 14th) go to die.
Regardless, Scorsese sets the mood nicely, the shots are pretty well chosen and the performances quite good. Good turns from Ben Kingsley and Max Von Sydow are automatic and Leo DiCaprio has proven he knows what he’s doing, but the surprises came from secondary characters. Michelle Williams is totally believable as vulnerable and frightened, then later seductive and still later in the film intimidating, unpredictable and creepy. And Jackie Earle Haley (possibly most known for his role as Kelly Leak in the Bad News Bears) is fantastic in five minutes of screen time. I happen to not be a fan of Mark Ruffalo who I find as exciting as beige wallpaper. This film did little to change that opinion.
Unlike Lars, I had not read the book before seeing the film and thus no idea where this was all going. This gave me the opportunity to really gauge pace. I very much liked the way Scorsese unraveled what was going on, and how he revealed the surprises. When making a movie, there’s always a choice to be made about how much to reveal and when; should the audience be “ahead” of the lead in the film (like they are in many thrillers and thus fearful for the lead’s safety), or should they be “behind” the lead (like they are in many dramas, where the lead produces a holy grail that shocks the bad guy and the audience all at once.) The choice to keep the audience pace for pace with DiCaprio in Shutter Island is the right choice. And though there are some clues early on as to what may be going on (nearly all related to Ruffalo’s character), they’re fairly subtle.
This is Scorsese’s second foray into an attempt at a Hitchcockian thriller, the first being the remake of Cape Fear. Despite not being as campy or over the top as he was with “Cape”, Scorsese creates tension and mood with score, lighting, camera angles, etc. I think Cape Fear was a better homage to Hitchcock, but Shutter Island is a better film.
I’d like to say more about it, or cite specific examples of my thoughts above, but it’s impossible to do without spoiling too much of the film, which I hope I haven’t done already.
