“Shutter Island”Directed by: Martin Scorsese
Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Mark Ruffalo, Ben Kingsley, Michelle Williams, Emily Mortimer, Patricia Clarkson, Jackie Earle Haley, Max von Sydow
Rated: R
Martin Scorsese is unarguably one of the best directors to ever take up the profession. His body of work is substantial and impressive.
Even though his “Raging Bull” lost the Oscar race to “Ordinary People” in 1980, it was later picked as best film of the decade by a panel of esteemed movie critics. “Taxi Driver” remains a jaw-dropping masterpiece, and “GoodFellas” is as good a modern gangster film as has ever been made. I've seen every one of his films more than a few times (“King of Comedy” is a favorite) and never tire of them.
He's also a fan and student of movies and is, by all accounts, a fanatic about them. His films always reflect his love and knowledge of the medium – and none more so than his latest, the film-noir-influenced tribute to Alfred Hitchcock, “Shutter Island.” In doing research for this review, I discovered that Scorsese showed his cast both the noir classic “Out of the Past” and Hitchcock's “Vertigo.” It seems that Scorsese has borrowed from the tradition of method acting and expanded it into method directing. The results speak for themselves.
Working from a script by Laeta Kalogridis, based on the novel by Dennis Lehane (“Mystic River”), Scorsese and his team of cinematographer Robert Richardson, set designer Dante Ferretti and his long-time right-hand woman, editor Thelma Schoonmaker, have crafted a film that is perfect in and of itself. It's a film lover's dream. Even the music – overseen by Robbie Robertson, Scorsese's friend and member of the legendary rock group The Band – is an important character from the first frame. Under the familiar Paramount logo there's a bone chilling, ominous little piece of music that sets the tone for what's to come.
It's 1954, and U.S. marshal Teddy Daniels (Leonardo DiCaprio) has been assigned to investigate the disappearance of a prisoner from Ashecliffe Hospital for the Criminally Insane, located just off the coast of Massachusetts on a foreboding piece of land called Shutter Island. The hospital was originally built as a Civil War fort, and it makes Alcatraz seem inviting.
On the ferry ride to the island, Daniels meets his new partner, Chuck Aule (Mark Ruffalo). There's something vaguely odd about their meeting, a technique that Scorsese uses to great effect throughout the film. Teddy narrates the story, which is told distinctly from his point of view. He's what's known as a “flawed narrator” – he's too involved in the story to be impartial – and as things unfold, it becomes more apparent how flawed the narration may be.
With the island looming in the distance and the sky recalling Hitchcock, it doesn't take long for the tension to build.
When Teddy and Chuck get to the hospital, they meet Dr. Cawley, a creepily calm character played to the hilt by Ben Kingsley. He's charming but unnerving.
Then they meet Dr. Naehring. Played by Max von Sydow, Naehring makes no attempt to be charming. In this post-World War II setting, and with the fact that there are flashbacks of Teddy's involvement with the liberation of Dachau, Naehring is nothing less than an obvious war criminal who has managed to slip through the cracks of international justice. But then again, we're dealing with a flawed, unreliable narrator.
The prisoner who has “disappeared” is one Rachel Solando, a woman convicted of killing her three young children. She's played in turn by Patricia Clarkson and Emily Mortimer; don't worry if that doesn't make sense, the whole film is a gigantic mess-with-your-mind affair.
There's no probable way anyone could escape from Shutter Island, and when Teddy starts digging, things get weird. Popping up in his dreams and sometimes in his waking hallucinations is his estranged wife, Dolores (Michelle Williams), who haunts Teddy in ways we don't fully understand.
In Act 3, things start coming together even as they are falling apart, and the “real” (or is it?) story comes to the fore. It's great movie-making, and it's one of those films where the viewer can't afford to miss one minute.
Scorsese has made some of the most engaging movies of the last 40 years, and “Shutter Island” ranks with his best. Besides a compelling story and great look, the director is unabashedly showing his influences.
If you love movies, you'll love this one.
Jim Wunderle owns Wunderle Sound Services and is a Springfield freelance writer and musician. He can be reached at info@wunderlesound.com.
