BLAIR WOYNARSKI
Arts Writer

The latest offering from the dynamic duo of Martin Scorsese and Leonardo DiCaprio has everyone talking about what it means, how good it is and what two movies it’s a combination of. If Shutter Island could be summed up in a concise way, then it is dark, mysterious and exhilarating.

Scorsese is, and will always be, most famous for his crime movies, filled with gangsters, blood and psychopaths. He diverged from this style in 2004, when he and Leonardo DiCaprio teamed up for the second time to produce the Howard Hughes biopic The Aviator. Now he has diverged again. And while this experiment in form is less successful than his previous films, it still stands up as a strong piece of filmmaking.

Shutter Island has been (as these things often are) improperly advertised. It is not a horror movie; rather, it walks a line somewhere between psychological thriller and old-fashioned mystery. The movie is based on a novel by the same name (written by Dennis Lehane, who is also responsible for the bleak and stirring drama Mystic River) and follows the book fairly closely.

The movie opens in 1954 with U.S. Marshal Teddy Daniels (DiCaprio) and his new partner Chuck Aule (Mark Ruffalo) on a boat to an island (three guesses what it’s called) off the coast of Massachusetts. On this island is Ashecliffe psychiatric hospital, home to the most dangerous mental patients in the country along with a private military to keep them locked down.

The marshals arrive to investigate the mysterious disappearance of a patient named Rachel Solando, but the investigation goes nowhere and Teddy encounters resistance from everyone on the island, particularly from the head psychiatrist Dr. Cawley (Ben Kingsley).

Teddy confesses to Chuck that he has actually been investigating this hospital from the outside for some time, and suspects that they are performing experiments on patients. But as he digs deeper, it becomes less likely that he will ever leave the island.

Flashbacks and dreams are a continuous motif in this film. The audience begins to doubt Teddy’s mental togetherness early on when he has repeated visions of his wife (Michelle Williams), who was killed in an apartment fire several years earlier. His journey around Ashecliffe also sparks memories of his time as a soldier in the second World War as part of a team that invaded and liberated Dachau.

Scorsese explores expressionist filmmaking in these scenes, juxtaposing calm, classical music with scenes of extreme violence and speeding through images at a disorienting rate. He layers scenes so that an idyllic apartment comes crashing down. His work here is a long stretch from the stark drama of, say, The Departed. But this movie allows Scorsese to branch out into a different realm of the industry he has helped develop — and he seems to enjoy it. He brings vibrancy and imagination to these scenes, making them riveting and engrossing.

The progression of Shutter Island is built on mistrust. The audience isn’t sure whether to be suspicious of the protagonist or everything around him — or both.

One thing that is certain right from the beginning is that there is a mystery to be solved and the viewer must solve it. Every twist that Teddy’s adventure takes opens up new questions, new speculations and new revelations. The plot for the most part is one you’ve heard before, but Scorsese builds it with such a tremendous atmosphere of suspense and mystery that the audience is always on its toes.

DiCaprio delivers his trademark intensity as Teddy Daniels, searching for truth but plagued by pain in his past. His strongest moment is probably his moment of frenzy and emotional torment while locked in conversation with an inmate (played by Jackie Earle Haley). He calls out for answers while desperately trying to illuminate the dark cell with a single match. Other than that, he turns out a good performance, but not the most outstanding work he’s done in a while.

Ben Kingsley, similarly, is a good foil for DiCaprio’s truth-seeker, always remaining detached and esoteric and maintaining the unsettling vibe that he is one step ahead of the game. There are good performances all around, but no great ones.

Most surprising, perhaps, is Mark Ruffalo. His subtle shifts in demeanour never quite label him friend or foe. He is genuine and likeable, but turns toward mysterious.

Martin Scorsese is one of the most celebrated directors of the past half-century, so it goes without saying that Shutter Island is worth seeing. This is Hollywood at its simplest and finest: engaging, thought-provoking and subtle.

It’s a gem of quality entertainment in a year that has already given us Legion and will yet give us Step Up 3D, Piranha 3D and Resident Evil: the Afterlife 3D. Very likely, it is neither the best movie of the year nor the best Scorsese will come up with this decade, but it is a new twist on a good tradition and it will definitely give you something to think about.

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67%

score on Rotten Tomatoes

8.2/10

user rating on imdb