Sunday, February 28, 2010

Shutter Island

The scheduling of Shutter Island left me uneasy, I don’t like movies moving from the fall into the first quarter. Usually that’s were movies are dumped in the hopes that they don’t lose too much money, but this is Martin Scorsese and Leonardo DiCaprio how can it be horrible?

Its unclear whether the Shutter Island storyline will hold up to repeated viewings but the first time through it held me in suspense all the way till the end. There was the perfect mixture of expected and unexpected twists. Until the climatic scene played out, I was not expecting the ending that was delivered. It was nice to get swerved like that while still being able to look back and realize I should have seen it coming. And it was definitely a positive that Scorsese was able to achieve this without resorting to the usual gore and scare tactics that these types of movies are filled with. The tension was built using dialogue, camera angles, and score. Scorsese never let you feel comfortable watching this story. It was escalating tension from the opening scene.

This is the fourth collaboration between Scorsese and DiCaprio and once again the pairing delivers. Shutter Island is completely dependent on DiCaprio; the entire movie is seen through his eyes. So as Teddy starts to lose his mind, DiCaprio gets to play more and more unhinged. His performance was key in order for the final scenes to work. There was a laundry list of talent filling out the rest of the cast. Mark Ruffalo was a solid choice as Teddy’s partner. Ben Kingsley got to play another version of the Ben Kingsley role as the slightly untrustworthy lead doctor. Max Von Sydow was perfect as the former German doctor that Teddy instantly clashes with. The two main crazy people were played by Jackie Earle Haley and Elias Koteas who are both great at those characters. Running out of room so applause to Michelle Williams as the dead wife, Patricia Clarkson as the doctor in the cave, Ted Levine as the menacing warden, and anyone else that I’ve forgotten.

I wonder why Shutter Island was delayed from October to February. Its not like psychological thriller is more at home in the winter than in the fall. Was there a worry that Scorsese had made a bad movie this time? If so, they were quite wrong.

9 out of 10

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