Shutter Island Review

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Shutter Island

Based on the book by Dennis LeHaine Shutter Isalnd is Martin Scorsese’s foray into physchological thriller territory.  It’s a vast departure for him and he has managed to create a film that is very different than anything he has produced before, which works and doesn’t work in equal measure.

Teddy Daniels (Leonardo DiCaprio) is a police investigator who has been sent to Shutter island a facility for the criminally insane to investgate the disapperarance of a patient who has managed to escape despite being locked in her room at the time.  As he arrives a huge strom breaks out which cuts them off from leaving and as he starts to delve a little deeper into his investgations it seems there is more going on at Shutter Island than they would like the outsiders to know about.  With the myusterious lighthouse becoming central to what is  going on Teddy slowly tries to cling on to his sanity as his own issues  and past come back to haunt him triggered by  Andrew Laeddis a  patient already on the island  who Teddy believes killed his wife 5 years ago.  As he gets closer to the truth of what is going on his own world is in danger of crumbling as it seems that Shutter Island holds the key to his future too.

Martin Scorsese teeters on a close line between genius and vanity project throughout Shutter Island, with its surrealist scenes and at times you will sit and wonder ‘did I miss something?’ Scorsese slowly draws you into his world slowly reeling you in and colilng you tighter and tighter with every extra minute that goes by before the eventual release which still has not sure whether you believe what you are seeing or not.  It’s a very clever film and at times it’s absolutely beautiful to watch, however the narrative of the story sometimes gets a little fuzzy and it can cause you to lose interest before the inevitable reveal. 

One complaint though has to be the soundtrack which at times is just scratcy noises and plinking keys on on a piano which are obviously a device to unnerve, but all it actually manages to do is annoy.  Leonardo DiCaprio really grows into this role and you can tell that he really knows what Scorsese wants from much like Robert DeNiro used to.  DiCaprio really manages to convey the confusion and ongoing dread very well and the emotion that seeps through in the flashback sequences is astounding.

On the whole Shutter Island is probably would have been considered a masterpiece for any other director.  However  Scorsese has always set himself a very high bar to maintain and unfortunately this has too many flaws and distractions to really view it that way.  Prepare though before seeing this though to have your mind bent out of shape before discovering the truth.  In that though Scorsese has become the new master.  There have been many pretenders to Hitchcock's throne over the years but here Scorsese proves that he is worthy of claiming at his own with Shutter  Island.

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