Shutter Island
Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Mark Ruffalo, Sir Ben Kingsley
Director: Martin Scorcese
Rating: R
5 out of 5 pitchforks
Good trailers precede good movies — trailers that are the Costco sample of the cinematic world: with one little, free taste, you’re willing to go all in with your money and your time.
With “Shutter Island,” you can sign me up as an executive member and I’ll buy whatever you’ll let me taste. Only, along with this sample, I got a taste of ground beef and I walked out of the store with a filet mignon.
The trailer for “Shutter Island” may as well be for a different movie, which is all for the better, because the trailer wasn’t advertising anything that looked as spectacular as the film truly is. All they really needed to do was flash director Martin Scorsese’s name across the screen a couple of times and anyone who appreciates a good film would have no choice but to see it anyway.
Leonardo DiCaprio plays Teddy Daniels, a duly appointed federal marshal in the 1950s who saw action in World War II, where he and his platoon liberated the Dachau concentration camp. Daniels’ wife died in an apartment blaze, taking from him his true love, a woman who constantly invades his thoughts. He and his partner, Chuck Aule (Mark Ruffalo), are assigned to investigate an escape at Shutter Island, the East Coast mental institution version of Alcatraz Island.
Immediately upon arrival at the island, Daniels becomes suspicious of what the mental institution really is doing with its patients. Is it rehabilitating them or experimenting on them like the Nazis did in their concentration camps? He also has a hidden agenda: to find Andrew Laeddis, the janitor who lit the match that eventually took his wife’s life.
The case that brought Daniels to the island is quickly solved, leaving the hunt for Laeddis the only thing for Daniels to focus on.
Things become stranger, and Daniels starts to suspect that he was brought to the island because of the snooping around he did on the institution back home in Boston. His sleuthing had afforded him too much knowledge on the subject, making him a threat to the secrecy that the island supposedly thrives off of.
From here, the movie turns into M. Night Shyamalan’s dream, all of which cannot be revealed here, for it would ruin the movie.
What I can tell you is that the film is a perfectly blended mix of delectable storytelling, prime acting and well-seasoned directing.
Scorsese knows how to tell a story, having told some of the best. This type of psychoanalytic thriller is not his usual cup of tea, but, as James Cameron would not tell you, its story, story, story that makes a great film. When you’re a revered director with a sharp script, genre is a moot point.
“Shutter Island” is similar to the other films in Scorsese’s catalog in the way it delves into the human mind, exploring every tic of someone who is just slightly off. Much the way “The Aviator” examined the eccentric life of Howard Hughes and how the vastly powerful human mind can wreak havoc on itself, the mind of Daniels is explored, with nothing being as it appears to be.
DiCaprio, as per usual when he is under the wing of his mentor, gives an excellent performance as Daniels, enhancing the story that much more. Sir Ben Kingsley gives a wonderful performance as a calm yet shady therapist whose expertise is known globally.
Every part of this movie is airtight, and not for one second in the film’s 138-minute running time does it drag, as is often the case in today’s full line of long-winded films. Scorsese and company know what they’re doing. You’d have to be some type of crazy to not see this film. Maybe even insane.
I’m sorry about that last pun. My point is: It’s a good movie. Go see it. You’ll like it.
Reach the reporter at pmelbour@asu.edu
