SHUTTER ISLAND
Directed by Martin Scorsese
Produced by Scorsese, Michael Medavoy, Arnold W. Messer & Bradley J. Fischer
Written by Laeta Kalogridis, based on the novel by Dennis Lehane
Released by Paramount Pictures
USA. 138 min. Rated R
With Leonardo DiCaprio, Mark Ruffalo, Ben Kingsley, Michelle Williams, Max von Sydow, Patricia Clarkson, Emily Mortimer, Jackie Earle Haley & Elias Koteas
 

Everybody waited for years for Martin Scorsese to win his Oscar that when it was finally over and done with for The Departed, many were elated, but a question no one really asked was “what’s next?” The Rolling Stones documentary Shine a Light notwithstanding, Shutter Island is the follow-up from Scorsese’s biggest box-office success, and I’m slightly sorry to report that it is no masterpiece of filmmaking. I’m not sure if film students will study and foam at the mouth in joy over this as they do Raging Bull and GoodFellas.

What the film is, however, great genre moviemaking, or a take-off on it. Using Dennis Lehane’s novel for the story points and characters, Scorsese fashions his own horror show of giddy psychological madness with a healthy dose of film noir. It’s set in 1954 when two federal marshals, Teddy Daniels (Leonardo DiCaprio) and Chuck Aule (Mark Ruffalo), are sent to the fog-covered Shutter Island off the coast of Boston to investigate a woman’s mysterious disappearance. The doctors (Ben Kingsley and Max von Sydow) give their support to the investigation, at least on the surface. But there’s something fishy about the place, something sinister, and the patients get coached for interrogations while the nurses and guards shuffle about with something to hide. And there is something to conceal, something quite huge, and it’s in large part the real reason why Teddy is on the island.

Again, I don’t think this is Scorsese in his finest hour. He spends chunks of the film on exposition, some of which could have been cut out. But I would be hard-pressed to suggest where. It’s the director’s knack for creating atmosphere out of seemingly nothing, of creating tension and intrigue in just a handful of edits and shots that makes the film stand out as a whole. The story builds like a solid potboiler, but a smart one, fashioned out of Lehane’s clever text into a madhouse of dark corridors and staircases, rainy prison cells, and nightmares of the Dachau concentration camp.

As a horror movie, Shutter Island strikes rich and fertile ground. The cast is all on their A-game, especially DiCaprio, who has gone through Scorsese’s version of film school since Gangs of New York and become a phenomenal actor. Here he’s a weathered detective out of ’40’s noir (an inspiration for the film was Robert Mitchum in Out of the Past), and in every scene he is given a little more to do emotionally. By the end, it becomes heartbreaking and haunting to see what his character goes through. Other actors like Patricia Clarkson, Jackie Earle Haley and Elias Koteas have fantastic one-off scenes, unforgettable even.

Contrary to what (some) critics are already declaring, this is not Scorsese slumming it, or even going “too far” in some kind of Hollywood excess of style. It’s him doing something else, almost unexpected (rarely, not since Cape Fear, has he gone this dark). Shutter Island is a movie to get the blood boiling, a snappy, hard-edged entertainment with a twist that reminds jaded audience members what it’s like to get knocked down with something incredible, yet believable. Jack Gattanella
February 19, 2010