Mystery/Thriller
2 hours and 18 minutes
Rated: R
Written by: Laeta Kalogridis
Directed by: Martin Scorsese
Produced by: Brad Fischer, Amy Herman, Mike Medavoy, Arnold Messer, Joseph P. Reidy, Martin Scorsese, and Emma Tillinger Koskoff
Cast:
Leonardo DiCaprio
Mark Ruffalo
Ben Kingsley
Michelle Williams
Emily Mortimer
Patricia Clarkson
Max von Sydow
Some places never let you go.
Following the financial and critical success - and not to mention his Best Director Oscar win - for The Departed, Martin Scorsese's career began to boom once again in a creative manner that it had not steadily been achieving since the New York filmmaker's early years. After the wonderfully put together documentary Shine a Light, Scorsese returned to an area of filmmaking that no doubt has been of major interest to him since he began having any sort of love for cinema: the mystery genre. Quite understandably, Shutter Island can be labeled as a thriller - but given how freely that term is thrown around and often times regarding many different genres, it is a term that has lost any sort of clarity it may have once had. However, Shutter Island is unquestionably a film that borrows and constructs itself out of elements belonging to various genres - genres that Scorsese has in the past worked within, more often than not unsuccessfully.
For starters, Shutter Island is a movie that owes a great deal to the horror genre. Scorsese has discussed this genre in countless interviews and has tackled it in the past with his underwhelming remake of Cape Fear. Unlike his version of Cape Fear, however, Shutter Island is a movie that seems to be quite understanding of the fact that while it is borrowing tropes, plot, and genre rules from horror - it is not a film that is completely beholden to it. The film utilizes a score full of ominous strings and brass notes, not unlike what one might find in Stanley Kubrick's The Shining. The plot, regarding an outsider coming into a closed off community out of necessity only to find that things are not exactly right or as they would appear is a plot that has been utilized in countless horror films - The Wicker Man, Blue Velvet, and The Stepford Wives being just a few examples. While one might argue this makes Shutter Island derivative - and surely there is some basis in that complaint - the main focus of this story is much more centered upon man's internal struggle with himself - something that all of those other previous films largely ignored. Shutter Island remains unique in that while an outsider journeys to a secluded community to find things amiss, he (in this case, a he) also must delve into the seclusion of his own psyche in order to confront all that is amiss within himself. It's a terrific paralleling of both plot and character and to no surprise Scorsese handles it wonderfully.
The film's cinematography and effects work also seem to owe a great deal to the horror genre. Blinding flashes of light used to indicate lightning strikes bring back to mind the old school techniques used in the Universal and Hammer horror films of the 1940s and 1950s. The continuous down pouring of rain and the surprisingly bright red color of the blood bring to mind the films of Dario Argento - a filmmaker Scorsese has often praised for his technical brilliance. This surrealistic and perhaps, old school method to both effects work and lighting boost the film's surrealistic undertones and make the dream sequences essentially indistinguishable from those occurring within the reality of the film. It's another brilliant achievement that contributes to this film's success in confusing its audience every step of the way, along with its characters.
The performances are spectacular and the cast is undeniably a more than capable bunch of actors. Scorsese more than likely knew that in order for something so ambitious as this to fully work and have the desired effect upon its audience, it needed actors who would make every single second of this film feel believable. DiCaprio delivers one of the best roles of his career, and it's truly incredible to watch him take on a character who must construct something out of nothing. He never makes anything feel ham-fisted or cheesy. We as an audience share in his struggle for the truth and his emotions become that much more palpable as we take them on as our own. The supporting cast of Ruffalo, Kingsley, Williams, and von Sydow (another call back to horror cinema) are equally as believable in their cunning and deception allowing the story to turn and bend in directions that in lesser handled material would seem ridiculous. Ted Levine, as the brutal (psychologically that is) warden, delivers one of the most powerful roles in the entire movie. The scene shared with him and DiCaprio is one that ultimately remains the film's most tension filled moment that unfortunately is undermined somewhat by an awful use of green screen.
And that shifts to Shutter Island's deeper flaws. This is a movie clearly routed in old school cinema - whether it's 1970s horror films or 1940s noir. Shutter Island's use of CGI and green screen feels lazy and uninspiring. There are some truly remarkable practical effects within the movie which begs the question why use CGI or a green screen for something as simple as two characters driving in a jeep? It feels lazy on Scorsese's part, especially given the amount of technical work put into this movie to convey a particular atmosphere. The few moments these effects are used detract from the overall tone, giving us as viewers an opportunity to snap out of its spell and realize that we're watching a movie - fully removing ourselves from the drama. Luckily, these moments are few in number.
Shutter Island remains a worthy entry into the "thriller" universe - one that, despite its flawed use of computer and green screen effects, in many ways makes up for Martin Scorsese's disastrous remake of Cape Fear and becomes the filmmaker's true homage to horror and mystery cinema. The brilliant cinematography, practical effects work, performances, and of course story make it a motion-picture that remains captivating to this day, and a piece of cinema that demands multiple viewings and many dissections.
8/10
