MUBI

A fantastic movie of Hitchcockian proportions and more than one nod to the legendary director by Scorcese. You can tell that Scorcese is one of the last dinosaur filmmakers that are the craftsmen of American cinema, from the set to the costumes to the music to the cinemaotgraphy, the movie is a woven piece of moving art. The cast is great and DiCaprio finally convinced me that he is a good actor after all. Ruffalo was a bit of a setback because I think he was lacking the ambuigity and menace to be interesting a fill the characters. While I thought that Scorcese used the odd dreamsequence too much, it all falls together in the end and makes sense so dont get annoyed by that. With a twist and ending to keep you guessing and deducing for hours this is the perfect way to end a movie, make the journey interesting and thrilling but give the audience something to take home with. The movie comments on the state post-war sanitariums and psychiatry used to be in, but does not ponder on the topic to blatantly too make it in your face. The premise and OST are enough to give you more goosebumbs than a herd of geese. Nice to see Max von Sydow still up and running, or walking that is. A fantastic movie and I am impressed that Scorcese managed to pull it off without using most of his signature themes and settings.

A Must see

Shutter Island seems to have all the right elements for an effective thriller;The right cast,music and direction style,etc… The film is visually stunning but it is all an exercise in the obvious and pretentious vein. The predictable plot is revealed too soon for the conscientious viewer and the only sport is watching obvious attempts to confuse our resolve. The “surprise” ending is more disturbing than surprising and it leaves a bad taste in one’s mouth.. (literally). The most disturbing aspect of this film is the wasted talents of the best of Hollywood talents. Back to the drawing board Scorsese and DiCaprio; Shutter Island is your weakest moment.

Easily my favourite film of the year so far (as of Aug-06-10). Yes, there’s still much to see, but Scorsese really surprised me with this one, which makes me all the more giddy at its greatness. I should have never underestimated one of my favourite filmmakers. His most horror-ific film since Cape Fear (which it surpasses), Scorsese handles the genre beautifully with some of the best visuals I’ve seen in years. The film doesn’t shy away from being influenced by The Shining (visually, sonically, tonally) and it’s all the better for it. Surely the best post-Kubrick Kubrickian film since A.I. or Birth and like that master’s work, will reward multiple viewings.

I gotta be honest, this movie was VERY disappointing. Id expect a movie like this to come from M. Night Shayamalan (predictable “twist”, you can see coming 2 minutes in to the movie). But when you’re Martin Scorsese, there’s no excuse for this. What’s even more fucked up is that if anyone else had directed this same exact movie, it would’ve gotten hated on immediately. But since Scorsese’s name is attached to it, people feel like; “well, it is directed by Scorsese, so it must be good. I HAVE to like it. Maybe I just to don’t get it.” All respect due to Scorsese, but I’m just sayin’… Anyway, In Shutter Island, Leonardo Dicaprio plays a detective on an assignment to find an escaped patient from insane asylum. Through out the film, we piece together that he lost his entire family, and is still haunted by it. The first few minutes in (Literally), you can clearly see what’s going on, making the next 2 hours of the movie somewhat of a letdown. When something is billed as a mystery, and you can figure out the mystery in the very beginning, it kinda takes the fun out of the rest of the movie. The last decade or so, hasn’t been that great for Scorsese. What’s happening to him now, is what happened to his peers in the 80’s & 90’s. Scorsese’s contemporaries like; Coppola (Godfather, Apocalypse Now), Bogdonovich (Paper Moon, Last Picture Show), Friedkin (French Connection, Exorcist) and Lucas (THX, American Graffiti) made their classics in the 70’s, and slowly fell off through out 80’s and 90’s. Scorsese was one of the few great American directors from the “New Hollywood Era” to actually survive the 80’s & 90’s, but it looks like he finally hit that “weird” patch in his career. I’m not saying he should go back to making gritty, mafia, new york city movies, but shit like shutter island, the aviator, departed, etc just aint working for me. Shutter Island is also an example of why trailers, are ruining movies. It’s getting to the point where you don’t even wanna see certain movies, because the trailer crams everything in to 2 minutes, and you feel like you’ve seen everything in the trailer. What’s the point of paying 12 dollars to see a movie when you’ve pieced everything together in the movie before you actually see it.

Plus que la folie du personnage, qui se dévoile ou qu’on devine rapidement, c’est le montage et le brio – parfois un peu trop appuyé ou démonstratif – de la réalisation qui marque Shutter Island. Cette combinaison de plans et d’effets ajoutent à l’ambiance oppressante qui vire à la folie. On pense beaucoup au maniérisme d’Hitchcock à voir le film, sauf que Scorcese en fait peut-être beaucoup trop par rapport au maître, plus subtil.

From the opening sequence on the boat, where the two leads meet, seemingly for the first time, I knew with very little doubt where this story was leading. I think anyone with a passing interest or familiarity with this kind of genre will do. If you haven’t within the first half hour then you really do need to get out more!
But predictability of plot strands is maybe not the be-all and end-all of what is at play here. This is Marty for God’s sake! Every cinephile’s favourite cinephile.
Just as with ‘Vertigo’, the twist is almost an irrelevance (it’s why Hitch gave it all away half-way through) and you follow the story with this in mind so that it then becomes a different story entirely. Of course ‘Shutter Island’ is no masterpiece of cinema to compare with ‘Vertigo’ but it’s a lot more fun than the naysayers missing the point would have us believe.

About three quarters the way through ‘Shutter Island’, one of the patients of the asylum informs our hero, “this is a game and it’s all for you”. Just as Leo’s opener, “Pull yourself together” is the film’s most winkingly obvious clue to its audience, this line is equally conceited and knowing and is most assuredly the film’s catchphrase. Someone is certainly smacking their lips here.

The story is a real hodge-podge piece of cod-psychology and gothic hokum gone literally over the hill and so far away with the fairies that we can only try our best to keep up. In the hands of cinephile Martin Scorcese, who seems here to have become something of a gleeful plunderer of all we know and love, the film becomes something – to put it mildly – akin to an insane pastiche/homage to every noir pulp, B movie, Hitchcock or Stephen King horror there ever was. As he piles cliche atop of cliche, as glaring continuity errors jump out the screen and the caricatures jostle for centre-stage, it brings out the cynic in much of its audience – woe betide anyone not sneering at this potboiler’s over-ripe melodramatics and blindingly obvious ‘twist’.
So, cry “rip off!” if you want to be thick. Groan and roll your eyes at the twist if you want to miss the point. Sit with your arms folded and remain pursed-lipped if you want to be humourless. But I defy you to turn away.
Don’t sneer. Just give in! If you don’t then it really is your loss because this is one marvelous piece of work. A real one-off that treads that very thin line between screaming camp and utter palm-sweating jaw-dropping cinematic insanity.
Just go with it! Enjoy the over-familiarity. Snigger slightly at the melodramatic set-pieces, as the rain lashes down and trees are toppled and eyes roll and jaws drop (ours as much as those on screen!). Take pride in your knowledge of all that’s being referenced. Wonder at the rich cinematography, the juicy cameos from Max von Sydow and Patricia Clarkson, the elaborate and very improbable sets, the bleak landscapes. Let your skin tingle at the incredible soundtrack – a rich musical assemblage that includes Penderecki, Ingram Marshall, Mahler, John Cage and Schnittke (it really is great!).
Yes it’s a mess. Yes it’s utterly flawed. Yes the ‘twist’ is (intentionally) reduntant. But it’s not boring for a single second and, from a cinephile perspective, is possibly the most fun I’ve had in the cinema since ‘Basic Instinct’!

Shutter Island adalah sebuah karya teranyar dari salah satu sutradara paling dihormati di Hollywood, Martin Scorsese. Kembali bekerjasama dengan Leonardo DiCaprio, film ini merupakan adaptasi dari sebuah novel berjudul sama karya novelis Dennis Lehane.

Film yang sempat diberi judul Ashecliffe ini sebenarnya pertama kali dijadwalkan rilis pada bulan Oktober tahun lalu. Namun, dengan menggunakan alasan ekonomi, Paramount Pictures akhirnya menarik Shutter Island dari jadwal peredaran pertamanya — sekaligus dari persaingan film-film yang akan memperebutkan Oscar — dan memilih untuk merilisnya pada bulan Februari 2010.

Bersetting di Boston pada tahun 1950-an, Shutter Island dibuka dengan adegan perkenalan antara seorang US Marshall, Teddy Daniels (Leonardo DiCaprio), dengan Chuck Aule (Mark Ruffalo), yang juga seorang US Marshall, dan akan menemaninya menyelidiki sebuah kasus di sebuah institusi mental, Ashecliffe Hospital, di Shutter Island.

Ashecliffe sendiri bukanlah sebuah institusi mental biasa. Ashecliffe dibangun untuk menampung mereka para penjahat-penjahat kelas kakap yang memiliki kelainan jiwa. Para staf di institusi mental ini sendiri baru saja mengalami kegemparan setelah salah seorang pasiennya, Rachel Solando (Emily Mortimer), ditemukan menghilang dari ruang tahanannya secara misterius. Karena itulah, Teddy dan Chuck dipanggil, untuk meneliti dimana keberadaan Rachel saat ini.

Setibanya di Shutter Island, dan dibawa ke Ashecliffe, Teddy dan Chuck berkenalan dengan Dr John Cawley (Ben Kingsley), dokter yang mengelola institusi mental tersebut. Dari penjelasan Dr Cawley, didapatlah informasi bahwa Rachel — yang berada disana karena membunuh ketiga anaknya dengan cara menenggelamkan mereka satu persatu ke dalam sebuah danau — menghilang dari kamarnya yang sebenarnya telah dikunci dengan ketat. Perlahan-lahan, Teddy dan Chuck mulai menemukan banyak petunjuk mengenai berbagai keanehan yang terjadi di institusi mental tersebut.

Di sisi lain, Teddy sendiri harus berjuang melawan dirinya sendiri yang terus dihantui oleh sang istri, Dolores (Michelle Williams), yang tewas dalam sebuah peristiwa kebakaran. Dalam khayalannya, Dolores sering sekali memberikan petunjuk pada Teddy mengenai keberadaan Rachel, serta keberadaan Andrew Laeddis (Elias Koteas), pria yang menyulut kebakaran dan menewaskan Dolores. Jadilah kini Teddy harus berjuang untuk menemukan Rachel, sekaligus menemukan Andrew Laeddis untuk, seperti petunjuk istrinya, dibunuhnya.

Lewat Shutter Island, Martin Scorsese kembali berhasil membuktikan posisi istimewanya di kancah perfilman Hollywood. Bukan hanya membuat Shutter Island sebagai sebuah film thriller yang berhasil, ia bahkan berhasil untuk memutar otak para penontonnya selama 138 menit dan meninggalkan mereka dengan rasa penasaran untuk sebuah misteri lainnya. Memang, bagi beberapa orang, ending yang ditawarkan Shutter Island sepertinya kurang sebanding dengan apa yang telah mereka hadapi dalam perjalanan menuju kesana. Namun tetap saja, tidak akan ada seorangpun yang mengeluhkan bahwa perjalanan yang telah mereka lakukan untuk mencapai bagian ending tersebut adalah sebuah perjalanan yang sia-sia.

Mari melihat bagian-bagian yang membuat film ini menjadi sebuah film pertama di tahun ini yang layak diberikan gelar sebagai the year’s best. Naskah film ini diadaptasi dari novel karya Dennis Lehane. Tidak familiar dengan nama tersebut? Anda pasti akan lebih familiar jika disebutkan Mystic River dan Gone Baby Gone. Ya, Lehane adalah orang yang sama yang juga mengerjakan dua novel yang telah diadaptasi ke dalam bentuk film tersebut. Dan sama halnya dengan kedua novel film tersebut, Shutter Island juga akan membutuhkan sedikit otak Anda untuk menikmatinya. Namun tak perlu khawatir, semua permainan otak ini telah diadptasi dengan baik oleh Laeta Kalogridis. Beberapa resumenya di masa lampau (Alexander, Night Watch, Pathfinder – dan hey… dia adalah salah satu produser eksekutif di film Avatar) mungkin terasa kurang meyakinkan. Namun dengan bantuan Steven Knight (Dirty Pretty Things, Eastern Promises — dia tidak mendapatkan kredit di film ini), Kalogridis berhasil menciptakan naskah yang demikian pintar dan meyakinkan.

Di bagian teknikal, Scorsese, seperti biasa, membawa tim yang telah biasa bekerjasama dengannya. Nama-nama seperti Thelma Schoonmaker (editor film — yang sangat berhasil membuat kesan misterius film ini begitu terasa) dan Robert Richardson (sinematografi — yang sangat, sangat berhasil memilih gambar yang mampu menciptakan suasana mencekam) berhasil memadukan kemampuan mereka untuk mejadikan Shutter Island sebagai film Scorsese yang memiliki kemampuan teknis terbaik. Ini ditambah dengan pilihan-pilihan musik latar dari Robbie Robertson. Robertson tidak akan mendapatkan nominasi Oscar untuk film ini, karena ia hanya bertindak sebagai supervisor yang memilihkan score-score musik ternama untuk menemani jalannya tiap adegan di film ini. Namun tetap saja, kejeliannya akan memilihkan suara yang tepat untuk sebuah adeganlah yang membuat Shutter Island sudah terasa menegangkan semenjak film ini dimulai.

Bagian terbaik film ini adalah tentu saja karena jalan cerita film ini, mampu dibawakan dengan baik, tanpa cela, oleh para jajaran pemerannya. Pertama ada Leonardo DiCaprio, yang di setiap penampilan filmnya, sepertinya selalu berusaha untuk mengalahkan penampilannya di film sebelumnya (it’s a compliment, by the way). Namun sayangnya, jika hendak membandingkan dengan apa yang telah ia berikan di Revolutionary Road, tentu saja aktingnya di Shutter Island akan mendapatkan nilai setengah dari nilai yang ia mainkan bersama Kate Winslet tersebut. Walau begitu, ini bukanlah kesalahan DiCaprio. Tidak seperti Revolutionary Road, semenjak awal film, DiCaprio memang sudah ditentukan untuk berperan sebagai seorang pria yang memiliki tekanan batin dan hampir kehilangan kewarasannya, dan itulah ekspresi yang dengan baik ditampilkan DiCaprio di film ini.

Ada tiga penampilan di film ini yang sangat mencuri perhatian. Michelle Williams. Jackie Earle Haley. Patricia Clarkson. Williams bermain Dolores, istri Teddy yang telah tewas dan hadir melalui setiap khayalannya. Lewat Shutter Island, Williams kembali menunjukkan aktingnya sebagai seorang wanita rapuh yang memiliki masalah, sama seperti yang pernah ia tunjukkan di Brokeback Montain. Haley dan Clarkson tampil kurang dari 10 menit di film ini. Walau begitu, momen kehadiran mereka yang tiba-tiba di film ini merupakan dua bagian yang dapat dibilang paling mengesankan di film ini. Lihat saja Clarkson, yang biasa terlihat kalem di film-filmnya, kini tampil acak-acakan, lusuh dan penuh amarah di film ini. Sementara karakter yang diperankan Haley menjadi sangat memorable karena perannya yang nantinya terkuak di akhir film.

Oh, jangan lupakan penampilan Ben Kingsley dan Mark Ruffalo di film ini — mereka tampil sama memikatnya dengan DiCaprio bahkan terkadang mampu memberikan jangkauan akting yang sedikit melebihi sang aktor utama tersebut.

Sebuah perjalanan yang penuh intrik dan memerlukan banyak konsentrasi, Shutter Island adalah sebuah film dengan pencapaian teknikal yang sangat mengagumkan. Dari gambar hingga tata suara, film Martin Scorsese belum pernah mencapai titik setinggi ini sebelumnya. Ini ditambah dengan akting tanpa cela dari para jajaran pemeran di filmnya, yang akan membuat Anda terkagum-kagum dengan kemampuan akting mereka. Sayangnya, film ini meninggalkan sesuatu yang sedikit mengganggu. Para penonton sebenarnya tidak akan memperdulikan bagaimana nasib Teddy di akhir film karena mereka tidak benar-benar pernah merasa terhubung dengannya. Ya, Scorsese mungkin sedikit melupakan sisi emosional yang seharusnya dapat membuat penonton merasa terikat dengan Teddy sekaligus membuat mereka akan memikirkan nasibnya sepanjang malam. Namun, Shutter Island bukan sebuah film yang hanya dinikmati ketika film ini mencapai endingnya. Perjalanan menuju ending tersebutlah yang akan membuat para penontonnya merasa luar biasa kagum dengan film ini.

Rating: 4.5 / 5

wow un increible film del señor scorsese , ver esta pelicula fue casi una experiencia surrealista , en un plano lleno de locura y con imagenes casi salidas de peliculas de KUBRICK y con un cierto aire que me recordo a ratos a esa locura de mi querdio genio de la locura MR LYNCH , viendo cada escena y cada acto de locura en ese manicomio uno se rfleja a ratos en este mundo lleno de inconsecuencias y atados a supuestos ordenes y supuestos regimenes democracias y todo eso ¿ A QUIEN CREER ? , ¿ REALIDAD , FICCION? .
Creamos ordenes dia tras dia locura tras locura ordenamos nuestra mente , acomodamos nuestra realidad a lo que mas queramos segundo tras segundo .
Regresando a la pelicula una actuacion llena de matices de Leo , viendo cada acto , cada sutileza visual , son monumentales esos actos en esta pelicula buscar mas palabras para esta pelicula y esa locura mostrada por el Señor Scorses es sin comentarios
Veanla y saquen sus conclusiones , dara vuelta su realidad ahi frente a sus ojos , y con esta pelicula quedaran mas como wow
4 estrellas obra de arte en el plano de la locura y el desquicio
pronto escribere mas ……………………………

Shutter Island es una película fallida, y su principal problema es no poder aplicar sus intencionadas reflexiones. En primer lugar, hay algo muy claro, que es el intento de hacer una renovación del estilo clase B de los 50’s. En este caso la figura central a “saquear” es la de Samuel Fuller. Pero las referencias son más que obvias: la trama es muy similar a la de Shock Corridor (1963), la mirada sobre la guerra recuerda a The Steel Helmet (1951), y el descubrimiento de los campos de concentración no sólo se menciona en Verboten! (1959) sino que el mismo Fuller, veterano de la 2da Guerra, participó en la liberación de un campo de concentración. Scorsese parece tomar uno por uno los elementos fullerianos y mezclarlos para hacer su propio pastiche pero con un presupuesto no acorde a sus intenciones meramente estéticas. Pero por otro lado Scorsese intenta hablarnos sobre la violencia y la representación. Intenta reflexionar sobre la demonización del nazismo y la propia locura norteamericana. La forma de los genocidios y su repetición. Intenta también analogarlo a la locura de su personaje, pero inevitablemente falla, y eso es porque aunque intente “dar cuenta” de aquella “ficción representada” con la que hace avanzar su película, no puede escaparse de ese lenguaje que él mismo muestra como “inútil”. Sucede esto: Di Caprio era en realidad un loco (vuelta de tuerca al estilo Shyamalan) que con el fin de negar su propio crimen creaba en su cabeza “su propia ficción” de los hechos y de la realidad. Había estado dos años encerrado actuando de esa forma hasta que los especialistas de la isla decidieron que durante un par de días iban a seguirle el juego, dejarlo a Di Caprio ejercer la totalidad de esa ficción propia para ver si era posible que al agotarla este vuelva a la razón. Sucede que Di Caprio entra en razón, pero al mismo tiempo le dicen que esto ya había sucedido hacía 9 meses, que ya había entrado en razón pero volvió a “volverse loco”. Di Caprio jura estar cuerdo, pero al día siguiente lo ponen a prueba y descubren que nada ha cambiado. Esa representación que el personal del hospital llevó a cabo fue inútil. Se podría decir que Scorsese nos está hablando de la pérdida de la memoria, como si él mismo declarara que el funcionamiento de esa ficción fuerte que creó durante toda la película no sirviera para nada. Se me podrá decir “pero Scorsese es consciente de esto, da cuenta de su propia puesta en escena”. El problema no es ese. La película cierra con un planteo. ¿Qué hacer ante esto? ¿Qué es lo que deben hacer los del hospital al respecto con Di Caprio? ¿Cómo actuamos ante la pérdida de la memoria y ante el descubrimiento de que aquél fuerte lenguaje que creíamos dominar tenía su debilidad para registrar a la Historia? Pareciera que fuera este planteo. Pero a este planteo, Scorsese responde con su propia película, y su alternativa es reaccionaria, porque vuelve a recurrir a ese mismo lenguaje para no sólo saquear algunos de sus elementos (las referencias ya mencionadas al cine de Fuller), sino para realizarlo con pleno disfrute y después intentar demostrar que es consciente de aquello de lo que ya sería de alguna forma “culpable”. Como si nos golpeara y luego nos pidiese perdón. Un ejemplo muy claro son los flashbacks en el campo de concentración. Cuando los soldados fusilan a los nazis en ese largo travelling, Scorsese pareciera estar intentando explicarnos que el sí leyó el artículo de Rivette sobre el travelling de Kapo (Gillo Pontecorvo, 1959), pero se le sigue escapando el uso que le da a la imagen, en esos otros travellings y movimientos de cámara que realiza sobre las pilas de cadáveres. Se le escapan también las horas de maquillaje que seguro tardaron para crear esas excéntricas heridas en la cara del nazi bellamente filmado en plano cenital lleno de papeles volando por el aire. Si hacemos una comparación con Inglorious Basterds (Quentin Tarantino, 2009) hay también una especie de “consciencia declarada”, pero la diferencia es que Tarantino se banca su ficción hasta el final, y si tiene que cambiar el resultado de la Historia lo hace. En Shutter Island se llega hasta un punto en el que pareciera que estuviésemos ya “afuera” de esa representación al poder “conocerla”. Y ahí es donde Scorsese cae, porque ese afuera es tan conservador como el adentro. La película termina con el plano del misterioso faro. ¿Qué pasa en el faro? ¿Qué van a hacer con Di Caprio en el faro? Mi conclusión: En el faro está Scorsese filmando esta película, olvidando, como su personaje, aquello que intenta declarar.

Legendary American film-maker Martin Scorsese (“The Departed” & “Taxi Driver”) returns from a four year absence with this all too perfunctory adaptation of the best-selling psychological mystery-thriller novel of the same name by Dennis Lehane (“Gone Baby Gone” & “Mystic River”) which looks good but feels hollow.

U.S. Marshal Teddy Daniels (Leonardo DiCaprio) is assigned to investigate the disappearance of a patient from Boston’s Shutter Island Ashecliffe Hospital where he has some personal scores to settle which threaten to undermine his own admittedly shaky personal sanity in a 1954 set period mystery that seems to be lacking in twists.

Leonardo DiCaprio (“Revolutionary Road” & “Titanic”) is starting to look pleasingly haggard in his fourth consecutive collaboration with the director but still has far too much of the boyish charm about him to convincingly pull off the character and is easily outclassed by heavyweights Ben Kingsley and Max von Sydow.

The director has created a superb looking movie that doffs its cap to Hıtchcock and creates a compelling backdrop to a story that never really seems to emerge as the plot plods towards a seemingly unavoidable twist and the social commentary on collective guilt is bungled by the unedifyingly inevitable ending.

“Stop me before I kill more.”

Scorsese’s latest has all the trappings of a big old genre blowout. All the trappings are there — a missing person investigation set on an insane asylum on a more than usually isolated island, a terrible storm that cuts off all communications with the mainland, asylum staff with an agenda, asylum inmates with an agenda, and an investigating officer who seems to be having a hard time keeping his wits about him. Just the ticket for a great edge of your seat wackadoo thriller joyride. Woo hoo!

Alas, Martin Scorsese doesn’t know from “woo hoo!” SHUTTER ISLAND is the latest and possibly the weakest (but probably not the last) of the BIG SURPRISE films, like THE SIXTH SENSE, THE USUAL SUSPECTS, MEMENTO, etc. I’m not bragging when I say that I saw it coming before the movie even started, simply by thinking about the fact that there is in fact a big surprise. I remember thinking, “Oh, man, it can’t be THAT, can it?” And when it came to the Big Reveal, I started to think that there had to be more to it, right, there just had to be, Scorsese couldn’t be settling for that tired old gimmick, really, could he, that couldn’t be it?

And goddamn it to hell, it was.

Folks, M. Night Shyamalan himself would have passed on this script for being just too too too fucking obvious. And Scorsese himself doesn’t help matters. Never the subtlest of directors, he just goes full-throttle here — every scene is heavily underlined for maximum importance, and vast stretches of dialogue seem to be marked with an asterisk somehow: Ben Kingsley virtually holds up a sign saying IMPORTANT CLUE every time he speaks. It would work as a sort of affectionate parody of high gothic whodunit stuff, but Scorsese never seems to be in on the joke.

There’s just nothing animating the movie, no fun, no idea that Scorsese was having us all on, a la Hitchcock’s assertion that PSYCHO was a “fun picture.” There’s nothing in SHUTTER ISLAND to even approach that glorious little moment in PSYCHO, for example, where Anthony Perkins says, “My mother.. what’s the phrase? She’s not herself today.” There’s just no room for that kind of thing in Scorsese’s solemn and increasingly joyless universe.

Solemn and joyless can have their appeal, of course. What finally makes SHUTTER ISLAND such an ordeal is the extreme heavy handedness with which Scorsese works overtime to add some perceived SERIOUSNESS to the rather silly contraption of a story. Flashbacks of the liberation of Dachau, no less, are liberally sprinkled throughout the film. There’s some nattering about violence being part of the human condition, and a mention of God supplying a moral order. All it really ends up doing is highlighting the real silliness of the goings-on, and not in a good way.

OK, so there are good points. A flashback to Dachau contains a memorable scene about the horrors of war that seems to act as a rebuke to the grinning gleeful savagery of Tarantino’s BASTERDS. The film is gorgeously mounted, the cinematography etc. are all perfection. The acting is mostly beyond reproach, with Michelle Williams and Mark Ruffalo turning in particularly fine work. Leonardo DiCaprio does his very best, but I have to say that I found his eternal golden youthfulness to be a major drawback in believing that he is supposed to have witnessed the horrors of the Holocaust firsthand. I’m hoping someone somewhere will explain the cameo from the great Elias Koteas, who appears all too briefly wearing what looks like Robert De Niro’s Frankenstein Monster makeup. Is that Scorsese’s idea of an inside joke or something?

It has to be said that SHUTTER ISLAND boasts the single coolest contemporary classical soundtrack since Kubrick’s THE SHINING, from which Scorsese lifts at least one memorable cue. The soundtrack album is essential owning. If only the movie itself were even remotely essential viewing.

Set in 1954, two Federal Marshalls arrive to SHUTTER ISLAND to investigate the disappearance of an inmate. What they find is not easy to accept for one of them. With hints of Hitchcock everywhere this story about a doomed man running out of time as his past catches up to him is a great mystery and suspense. Some of you might solve it right away (I did) but even if you don’t you’ll enjoy it either way, it doesn’t bore you. Even after learning the secret in the film you won’t believe that’s the reality. You can’t believe what you’re seeing. The story keeps you involved from begining to end. Robert Richardson’s cinematography is exquisite and it only helps to enthrall you in the mystery, the rain scenes are wonderfully executed. Great film, another classic from Scorsese. WARNING: Cover your eyes when the rats come! It’s not a pretty sight.

INSTITUTIONALIZATION
Shutter Island is a film about a man at war with himself. The mental hospital in which the story takes place is said to have been constructed during the Civil War, and the freakishly enigmatic “Ward C” (where the really crazy ones are kept) was a fort in that war. Ben Kingsley as Dr. Cawley even remarks on the state of psychiatric study: a polarized philosophic mess of old and new ideologies. Internal conflict. So, it’s the usual for a psychological thriller, except this time, it’s Scorsese-fied.

Scorsese and DiCaprio have made a super-charged genre picture. Because of this, some will find the film cliche and too close to the mark. They wouldn’t be wrong, but they’d be missing the point. Nitpicking the plot of any film is a tremendous waste of time. A film’s aesthetics are far more important than its literature, and that above all else seems to be the focus of Shutter Island. Sure, you could list off references to past thrillers (I even flashbacked to Skull Island, of all things, during the opening scene), most notably those of the master himself. Both Scorsese and DiCaprio have cited Vertigo as a major influence, and indeed, the tale of a haunted man warped by his memories of a (blonde) woman isn’t simply similar. But also remember Hitchcock’s mantras of cinema: not as “a slice of life, but a piece of cake,” and “technique over content.”

And oh, such technique, such style. Scorsese has long been acknowledged as a wizard of of the camera, but I find his utilization and mastery of modern film making techniques downright astounding, especially his humblingly efficient use of computer generated special effects. Can you imagine The Aviator without the glossy galvanization of the crash sequence, or the ridiculous realization of the H-4’s liftoff? I can’t. Shutter Island is not without equally impossible visual wonders. The psyche is home to many elaborate and surreal dream sequences (or hallucinations… who knows!), including the converged perceptions of misrememberings, and the confetti-like, atmospheric, ashy remains of a fire victim, not really affected by gravity, but listless and tormenting.

Also, maybe it was just me, but I found this film to be a joyous playground of motifs. The final shot is a quiet pan over the island’s craggy, New England cliffside, settling on the lone image of a lighthouse, a symbol of guidance. This is also the place where the facility performs lobotomies. Chilling! Especially when considered alongside the title itself: the light of memories hidden, even erased, by the quick and easiness of a shutter.

I’ve had a tough time deciding how I feel about this flick. I mean, it’s predictable as hell. After 30 minutes, you’ll know exactly where it’s going if you’ve seen your share of mindfuck thrillers over the years. However, the direction suggests that Scorsese understands the predictability of the plot, yet stylizes it to the point of art. The cinematography and use of music were, quite simply, amazing, but Scorsese has proved this to be his forte. Whether it’s The Rolling Stones or Vivaldi, Scorsese films have always been highlighted by the supreme soundtracks, and Shutter Island might be one of the standout ones when his career comes to a close. It did wonders to set the tone, which could be misconstrued as bad directing, or force-feeding the audience, but operatic horror films need a booming, intrusive score to highlight the often times absurdest plot. It really plays into the notion of entertaining horror, rather than truly disturbing stuff. Scorsese knows exactly what will hook his audience by this point, and to be honest he hits all the right notes to make people feel for the characters. Overall, you could do a lot worse for the movies, and again there’s a level of quality from Scorsese that you don’t see elsewhere.

Have you ever seen a film that is so mediocre, so lackluster that it’s bad? Or not even bad, just really disappointing? I have generally liked all of the Scorsese flicks I have seen, and this is his weakest. Remember how a few years ago he won an Academy Award for best Director and The Departed won Best Picture, yet everyone agreed that he didn’t deserve it? That the Academy was just patting him on the back? It seems as if Scorsese barely tried with this movie, since he feels that he’ll never grab an Oscar every again, even if he deserved it.

Shutter Island is a sloppy mess of a film. DiCaprio’s acting is pretty bad on board the ship at the beginning, and, like Papp pointed out, what’s the deal with Hollywood thinking that everyone from Massachusetts has that stupid Boston accent? That being said, he does a well job throughout the rest of the movie, and Ben Kingsley (who deserves bigger roles like this), Mark Ruffalo and Max von Sydow also do a bang up job.

A lot of people complain about the continuity editing in this film, like when Leo keeps lighting matches to talk to an inmate, or when he interviews the woman who asks for a glass of water. Perhaps it may be a fault on Schoonmaker’s behalf, or perhaps they are little hints that the Leo is very delusional. You decide.

The movie plays out like a surreal, paranoia thriller. If you like those three adjectives then you should check out Scorsese’s Bringing Out the Dead instead. Or check out Jacob’s Ladder or Session 9, as both films contain asylums in one form or another. All of those movies have their own twists, and the twist in this one is so predictable that it make the last half of the film drag on and on. Seriously, the last 5 minutes of the film felt like 20 minutes, and was the most elongated ending since Return of the King. . .

. . . and for about 20 minutes the film turns into Jurassic Park with ravaging torrential downpours and electric barbed wire that looses power, except instead of loosing dinosaurs the asylum looses inmates.

That is all.

After delivering what may be his most straightforward narrative ever with The Departed, Martin Scorsese does a complete 180 and offers up a narrative that is one of his knottiest. It has been 2 days since I have watched the film and I still feel as if I am untangling them.

Leonardo DiCaprio plays US marshall Teddy Daniels, he and his new partner, Chuck Aule (Mark Ruffallo) are sent to the titular island to investigate the disappearance of one of the inmates of Ashecliff, an institution for the criminally insane located on the island. Without giving too much away, let’s just say immediately things are not as they seem. They are “greeted” by the deputy warden (John Caroll Lynch), who immediately asks them to hand over their firearms, he says it’s protocol. The lead doctor at the facility, Dr. Cawley (Ben Kingsley) is not very forthcoming with information, such as not handing over documentation on the patients at the Marshalls’ request. We are also left to wonder why he seems to take orders from the creepy Dr. Naehring (Max Von Sydow), who Teddy suspects of being a former Nazi scientist.

To say anymore about the plot might ruin the movie, but it would also be pointless, as that is not what the film is really about. The film is really about Teddy’s guilt (this is a Martin Scorsese movie after all) and his mental deterioration. Teddy is haunted by memories of his deceased wife, who we see in dream sequences and eventually hallucinations, and his involvement in the liberation of the concentration camp in Dachau.

When the revelation arrived it initially seemed obvious and not very surprising to me. But after the film was over, and I continued to think about it, I realized that the whole ending of the film has in fact resolved nothing, and we are left to ponder the reality of what we have just watched. And it is for this reason that I am still untangling the film.

DiCaprio delivers what may be his best performance as Teddy, if he was all coiled intensity in The Departed, here he plays a man who is emotionally bleeding all over, and although I did see the revelation coming, DiCaprio brings such anguish to the scene, I found it undeniably moving. Ben Kingsley and Max Von Sydow are appropriately creepy as the doctors who appear to be keeping secrets, and Mark Ruffallo, whose performance seemed a little off to me, on reflection is very sly and subtle. There are two phenomenal one scene performances that must be mentioned, the first is by Jackie Earle Haley, he plays one of the inmates of Ashecliff, he is someone Teddy has tried to help but has ultimately damaged. His scene with Teddy is quite eerie and tragic, especially once the reality is known. The other performance is by Patricia Clarkson, she plays a character Teddy encounters in a cave that leads Teddy further into the maze of madness and paranoia as she lays out for him what is “really” going on.

This film is Scorsese’s most personally driven film since at least Bringing out the Dead. He is experimenting in a way he hasn’t in quite some time, creating images that seared themselves into my brain, especially during the Dachau flashbacks. Although he has made films before that deal with characters who have a tenuous relationship with reality (King of Comedy, Taxi Driver), he has never dealt with the subject as ambiguously as he does here. Scorsese uses all of the tools at his disposal, set design, editing, cinematography, to create a world that appears to be filtered through Teddy’s mind. Scorsese has made an expressionist film, which is one of the reasons the film is proving to be divisive. When watching thrillers, there is an expectation that Scorsese is subverting here, we want our narratives to wrap up neatly, but Scorsese has chosen to focus on character over a clean and straightforward narrative.

I have been a fan of Scorsese’s post 2000 work, but after The Departed one started to wonder if he would just become an accomplished journeyman filmmaker as opposed to a driven auteur. With Shutter Island, fears of that happening are laid to rest, as Scorsese takes what appears to be a straightforward thriller, and explores guilt, trauma and the violence of the mind as only he can.

Shutter Island is amazing, blah blah blah.

I am not going to write some long review. I just want to voice my opinion on one element of this film.

A lot has been written on how works INVITE us to WANT to know the truth of the stories they are telling. Shoshana Felman claims that James’s “The Turn of the Screw,” is a book that repeatedly encourages the reader to “want to know” but continually and finally refuses to offer that knowledge in so many ways. Stephen doCarmo, for instance, feels like a movie like “Mulholland Drive” does this to a problematic extent—even to the extent of ensuring passivity in its viewers.

We say that we want to KNOW (we do, even in the act of seeing a narrative through), but many of us complain that the ending to a film like this is not AMBIGUOUS enough.

But is it enough to simply not know? This seems to be the final question of Scorcese’s latest film, “Shutter Island.” Isn’t there something specifically violent about the constant wish to interpret and read into actions and symbols (think Mahler)? What do we lose when we find ourselves always skeptical of structures of power? In order to be radical, does the [paranoiac?] imperative of knowledge and interpretation have to be left at the door?

Perhaps von Sydow’s character offers a telling bit of wisdom when he reminds us that “trauma” derives its name from the German word for dream: “Traum.” Is Zizek right to reverse the old hippy maxim in insisting that our dreams are, in fact, the crutch for reality?

Or to quote Aaaahnold: “What if this is all a dream?”

::gulp::

When one looks at the marquee for tonight’s showing of “Shutter Island”, some people were taken aback by the fact that Martin Scorsese’s name was attached to this film. True, the cinephile who has given the world a myriad of great films, but this is a name that is not necessarily associated with the horror genre. Aside from his previous efforts in "Cape Fear, " I truly believe that this is Scorsese’s first, true crack at the horror genre. A number of critics would choose to

A hulking, brooding monster of anxious filmmaking, all wild storms and unsettling scowls and crooked angles; a hand-woven tapestry of flashbacks, hallucinations, corrupted memories, and unreliable reality. DiCaprio’s protagonist Teddy is a faulty flashlight in the dark, labyrinthine mess of Shutter Island.
There have been notices of influences like Fuller, Hitchcock, Kubrick, and while I think all of these are present, make no mistake that this is a Scorsese film. A singular work, no doubt, but Scorsese for sure. Playing almost giddily with twists and cliched devices, no matter when you think you have all the pieces put together, he makes this picture not about the final result, but about getting there. It’s about the journey to the end, and not the end itself. And he builds the tension, and holds us in captivity, until he releases it like a pressure cooker and the credits ooze onscreen. And I have to say, the final few minutes of this film, and the questions presented there, just knocked me flat.

Fabulous acting, cinematography, set design, everything really. A maddening, wonderful cohesive picture.

(Saturday, February 20, 2010 9:30am)

A masterpiece! Powerfully moving, gut-wrenching, melancholy and with intense anguish and sorrow . Scorsese hit a home run again. Shutter Island is up there and should be up there with Quentin Tarantino’s (Inglourious Basterds), Michael Haneke’s (The White Ribbon) and Coen Brother’s (Serious Man). Leonardo DiCaprio’s performance was wrenched out of place pensive way, but in a beautiful fashion. The supporting casts were admirably fine and excellent. Hands down, one of the best, if not the most extraordinary film about twisted understanding. Superb film-making of a legend, this film illustrates how perilous a tragedy can cause a man’s life with overpowering force that winds the mind together.

When storms blow past like razor blade rivers of air and a woman begins to burn up as water gushes out of her mixed with rivets of blood you suddenly know that this isn’t a typical Martin Scorsese picture. In ‘Shutter Island’ Scorsese channels Sam Fuller, Alfred Hitchcock, and Buñuelesque tones to portray the surrealistic mental picture of our protagonist Teddy; a hard boiled US Marshall in what was meant to be a hard boiled movie straight from the 1950s. Marty’s influences have never been stronger since he’s never made a movie like this one- his mad love for tackling a spook story hangs over the island like a thundering cloud.

I have no idea how the Dennis Lehane novel plays out but Scorsese elevated a ‘Shock Corridor’ style story of cerebral terror into a bizarre psychological thriller with the exhilaration of a caper. The man can never serve up a straight genre picture and for that he’s truly the man. The other men, cinematographer Robert Richardson and art director Dante Ferretti, are probably as big stars as Scorsese and his cast and you’ll know why the minute you arrive on the island. The ‘mental ward’ is so big and elaborate with it’s leaky storm drains, civil war design, and gothic brick that fear instantly hits you before ever walking in- you feel trapped and amazed. This is an adventure horror picture.

The wonderful part is that within the mad fiction of the movie so many philosophical ideas could be carved in such as our fear of isolation, our worry over the nuclear end of the world, our flailing definition of sanity, the confrontation of our true nature, and the horror of losing those which we love. It’s also a fine historical document of what I can at least describe as the movie history of old time mental wards and 50s social mores. There is a scene where a female patient is asked why she’s in the ward despite how normal she seems to be and she replies, “After your husband beats on you and cheats on you with ever woman he meets and no one can or wants to help you. Killing him with an axe begins to make sense.” I paraphrase but oh man was that scene a wonderful statement on how a woman in the 50s pushed to the edge is a psychotic criminal instead of a woman seeking to survive. This is great stuff.

DiCaprio’s Teddy is among the most remarkable characters in the movies as well. When we figure out what has happened all along, what matters most is that the character is so rich and so well portrayed that we probably always knew what would happen to him. This is DiCaprio’s shining moment as an actor: liberated from modern day realism, infused with noirish dread, and determined to the bone. ’Shutter Island" is the best collaboration between two titanic artistic forces. This movie is a roller coaster ride.

Very rarely does a film meet, let alone exceed, the expectations of the piece of literature it is based upon. With a director like Martin Scorsese, however, you do hold out hope that it will at least come close. But with postponements from the Oscar wheelhouse of a fall release and the move to a dump month such as February, concern weighed very heavy. Maybe the departure in subject matter caused the venerable auteur to falter a bit, unsure of how to handle a thriller such as Dennis Lehane wrote. As it is, it’s a departure for the writer too—previously seeing very successful adaptations with Mystic River and Gone, Baby Gone—delving into suspense/horror where dramatic intrigue used to be. I never read those two books, but I did catch up to this one, enjoying it immensely for its genre qualities and pulp nature. And that is exactly how I felt about the film version of Shutter Island; it’s not classic cinema, but a very strong, taut thriller and a perfect inclusion to Scorsese’s already prolific career.

This is definitely his most stylish work to date—almost overly so. Scorsese has always had a style of his own, but this one seems to be taking some pages from other directors. Perhaps he just wanted to branch out and try something new, keeping Kubrick’s The Shining at the forefront of his mind, utilizing a lot of that film’s tricks to wet his feet in the endeavor. I had heard previous to the screening that comparisons to the classic 1980 film were running rampant and it didn’t take long to see for myself. So much of the beginning is shot from a low angle, looking forward into expository frames. There are a lot of static shots centered, very symmetrically, lulling us into this world of quiet to soon erupt with insanity. Sharp cuts to overhead images, meticulously positioned made me think of the blink and you’ll miss them edits in The Shining, mixed together with quick connectors of close-up banal action, like the locking of a door, bringing to mind Aronofsky’s Requiem for a Dream. And even the music cues recall Kubrick’s horror film—at times abrasively loud, crescendoing to its peak and then disappearing to complete silence, only the natural sounds of what’s onscreen remaining. If this film gets any Oscar love, Sound Editing is top of the list.

The lynchpin that holds it all together, though, comes in the form of Leonardo DiCaprio’s Teddy Daniels. By far the lead role here, in front of the camera for the duration, DiCaprio gives a tour de force performance, embodying this haunted WWII vet turned US Marshall, desperately trying to expose a system he sees as corrupt, maybe getting revenge for his wife’s murder in the process. It is a solid portrayal that only gets better as the film goes on, watching this hardnosed and stubborn man slowly unravel at the seams. So many secrets become revealed as the plot progresses, and while their outcomes are somewhat obvious, (I’ll admit to figuring the whole thing out while watching the original trailer last year, before I even read the novel), but I do believe experiencing the revelations firsthand is worthwhile, so I won’t go into more detail. Being such a twist-oriented story could have hurt the film for someone who knew the plot going in, but Scorsese should not be underestimated. The sense of excitement mixed with dread is still palpable because knowing what will happen gave way to not knowing how he’d show it. And if Marty got one thing right here it is the amazing 1950s aesthetic and the visual flair of the events.

To give a little about the plot of the tale, DiCaprio’s Teddy and his new partner Chuck, (played effectively by Mark Ruffalo if only because he doesn’t standout or steal the spotlight), have arrived at Shutter Island to investigate the disappearance of one Rachel Solando, a woman who killed her three children years before that has seemed to vanish through the walls. The island is a mental institution for the criminally insane, but something is a bit off-kilter and there is more going on than is being told to the Marshalls. Guns must be removed, personnel files are off-limits, and it’s almost as though the psychiatrists don’t want the woman to be found. While the case moves forward, however, we also become more involved in the psyche of Teddy himself, catching glimpses of his past and nightmares of his dead wife talking to him about her killer being on the island too. Adding to the feelings of dread made real by the acting and stunning visuals is a crippling sense of claustrophobia. Scorsese has trapped us on the island with the two Officers, always showing the gate close behind them, even using torrential rain as a blockade to freedom outside the grounds. And the use of objects ever apparent between the actors and the audience is ever-present. Sometimes it will be a fence, sometimes a literal cage, and at one instance, beautifully, the crackling flames of a fire licking at the faces of DiCaprio and Patricia Clarkson, keeping them far away from us, even in close-up.

Supporting roles like Clarkson help flesh out the film; using well-known faces for bit parts, proving the pull that Scorsese has in collecting superb talent. Elias Koteas, Jackie Earle Haley, Emily Mortimer, and Michelle Williams all come into the fray and shine in their limited, yet integral screen time. Ben Kingsley and Max von Sydow round out the cast as the doctors helping the Marshalls secure their island sanctuary, a hospital trying to do some good for people the world has forsaken, but again, they are all just players in the game surrounding Teddy Daniels. The subject of insanity looms large, as well as the pros and cons of medicinal treatments versus lobotomies, but the real topic at hand is what is happening to DiCaprio’s character and the blurring of reality with fantasy. By no means a masterpiece, Shutter Island succeeds within its genre, excelling at providing psychological scares and invigorating revelations. It’s good to see Scorsese have some fun, as well as a popular novel be converted so faithfully, save for the final event. It may be the one change I can clearly point out, but it is also an improvement on the source, in my opinion, leaving the audience with a sense of ambiguity that puts an even darker spin to Lehane’s original conclusion.

Shutter Island 8/10

http://jaredmobarakreviews.wordpress.com/2010/02/17/shutter-island/

I’ve never disliked a Scorsese movie, and judging by the trailer and plot overview, I don’t think I will start with this one. Looks great! I wish it was coming out for the Halloween season like originally scheduled. I see there is a February release planned, now. “The Silence of the Lambs” came out in February too, and was one of the only horror / thriller films to ever win an Academy Award for best picture. I wonder if Scorsese and company are going for the same type of thing?