Review: Shutter Island well constructed, although confusing
Martin Scorcese is certainly not a newcomer to film. In fact, one of his earliest films, “Taxi Driver,” turned out to be a breakout hit both financially and critically. Since then he’s went on to amass an impressivecatalog of films including “Raging Bull,” “The Last Temptation of Christ,” “Goodfellas,” “Cape Fear, “Gangs of New York,” “The Aviator,” and “The Departed.”
This body of work is part of the reason why Shutter Island leaves me scratching my head.
The film stars Leonardo DiCaprio as U.S. Marshall Teddy Daniels, who has been hired to investigate a missing persons’ case for the maximum security psychiatric ward known as Shutter Island. He is accompanied by his partner Chuck Aule (Mark Ruffalo), who is an expert in finding important clues just off-screen and asking “You okay, boss?” when needed.
When they arrive they are greeted by an entourage of grim-faced and shady looking guards led by Deputy Warden McPherson (John Carroll Lynch), who take them into the heart of Shutter Island and show them around. They eventually meet one of the heads of the ward, Dr. Cawely (Ben Kingsley). Dr. Cawely informs them about the missing patient, a woman named Rachel Solondo who has inexplicably managed to slip past the tight security.
As Teddy and Chuck snoop around the island looking for clues and leads, they become suspicious of the true intent behind Shutter Island’s orderly facade. The nurses and orderlies seem unusually tight-lipped, as if they are in fear of letting something important slip out. They eventually have to resort to breaching their agreement and start investigating areas that are “off limits.” The deeper they dig, the more sinister the uncovered secrets begin to look.
Leonardo DiCaprio does a superb job of portraying the crumbling emotional and mental psyche of Teddy Daniels, who has more than his fair share of skeletons lurking in his closet. His high-intensity acting is counterbalanced by Ben Kingsley, who brings a lot of subtle charm to his character’s calm and calculating demeanor. Kudos also goes to Jackie Earle Haley, who plays the incredibly creepy patient George Noyce with much aplomb. The rest of the cast slides neatly into the unsettling and decaying background, although there are a fair share of over-actors and stereotypical characters.
There are a few things that seriously harm the film though.
The first problem is with the film’s editing. There is an unconscionable amount of poor editing and continuity errors in the film. The first half of the film feels entirely slapdash, with an overly booming score and a twitchy camera that never seems to let the viewer get a decent bearing on what they are seeing. Hand and body positions jarringly change several times over the course of a few seconds, objects inexplicably disappear, and much of the dialog comes out as clipped. Upon further research I found that perhaps this was intentional and that the director wanted the audience feel like they are viewing the film from Teddy’s paranoid point of view. However, it simply never works out that way. Instead of being unnerving and unique, it comes off as being more annoying and distracting. As the film reaches the conclusion, it begins to slow itself down to a more manageable and enjoyable pace. However, it comes as too little too late. This is a shame since every shot of the film is saturated with such a rich and prevalent atmosphere of sheer gloom.
The second mistake falls solely to blame on the people behind the marketing of the film. I hate to be the “Called It!” guy, but as soon as I had seen the first trailer in theaters, I was able to guess what the big “twist” was. Going into the film, I hoped that this was simply a red herring, and that there was more to the film than I thought there was. There wasn’t.
The final result is a grab bag of good elements clashing against the bad. The film comes together like a clock crafted by the hands of an expert that has too many rusty and broken gears; it’s beautiful, but ultimately doesn’t work the way it’s supposed to.
3.5/5 Stars
This film ain’t about the twist per se. It’s a very psychological character study and it lets you see things not only from the character’s point of view but from your own distorted point of view as well. Too bad you didn’t get it. Of course it isn’t about the twist because you can guess pretty early what rather obvious twist there is if you want to see it that way — not that that is actually THE TWIST, if you want to look at it another way. It does require more than one viewing to appreciate though. At least that’s my experience. I think the first viewing is so disorienting for most audience members — unless they just get into that zone that there is a tendency to dismiss it. If that’s an error, then so be it. I do know that I couldn’t get this thing out of my mind and still can’t. I think you are selling it far too short. It’s a mind bender for sure but one that I believe will be higher up the chain in time, somewhat like The Shining and Vertigo, both of which were a little maligned at first.