In Shutter Island, Martin Scorsese has crafted a harrowing psychological thriller about a federal agent investigating the disappearance of a prisoner from a hospital for the criminally insane off the coast of Massachusetts.
But while the film achieves an enthrallingly unsettling atmosphere amidst the bleak terrain, catacomb-like cells, and many-layered secrets of Shutter Island, it is as flawed as it is brilliant.
Atmosphere aside, the performances are the high point here, not least that of frequent Scorsese collaborator Leonardo DiCaprio as U.S. Marshal Teddy Daniels. And that is not to belittle the other aspects of the film, because Shutter Island showcases a truly formidable cast, including Ben Kingsley as chief psychiatrist Dr. John Cawley and Mark Ruffalo as Teddy’s partner, Marshal Chuck Aule.
Alongside the headliners are a breathtaking number of less prolific character actors, including Max von Sydow, Elias Koteas, Jackie Earle Haley (who seems destined to be typecast as a violent psychopathic inmate after Watchmen, this picture, and the forthcoming Nightmare on Elm Street remake), Patricia Clarkson, John Carroll Lynch, and Ted Levine (who will never quite escape the shadow of his role as Jame "Buffalo Bill" Gumb in Silence of the Lambs).
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Shutter Island
Directed by Martin Scorsese |
From the moment Teddy and Chuck arrive on Shutter Island, it is clear that things are not as they seem – or at least not as they should be. A woman has disappeared from inside a heavily guarded, locked cell (the level of security evokes Jurassic Park) and disappeared barefoot on an inescapable island in the middle of a hurricane.
Scorsese knows how to unsettle his audience as well as he knows how to select his actors and cultivate good performances (in this case excepting one stupidly grinning extra who ruins the effect of what is supposed to be a startling massacre), and as both clues and contradictions accumulate, Shutter Island achieves an air of claustrophobic suspicion to match anything in recent cinema.
But the ever-expanding plot is as frail and ponderous as it is involving. Scorsese is simply trying to do too many things at once, setting out to investigate the ethics of psychotherapy, the human inclination toward violence, and even the nature of sanity, while invoking the specters of government conspiracy and Nazi experimentation, among other things.
Ultimately, he spreads himself too thin. To say the plot collapses under its own weight would be completely unfair, but once we are thoroughly confused as to what’s real and what’s not, who is telling the truth and who is covering it up – this is about the half-way point – things start to come off the rails in terms of both pacing and relevance.
By the time we get to the expository soliloquies from the character actors, we are losing our faith that the information is in fact of any consequence. To Scorsese’s credit, when the twist comes, he has the guts to go through with it, but the story inevitably falls victim to some of the same "revisionist narrative" issues which marred The Usual Suspects and High Tension.
The soundtrack – consisting of classical and popular pieces, none of them original to the film – is chock full of dissonant strings and rumbling foghorn blasts; in general, it frightens less than it invites amused condescension.
But Shutter Island is not the sort of movie you see for its musical score or to uncover deep truths about humanity – though they are hinted at, sometimes heavy-handedly, and offer ripe post-credits discussion – it is a confection to enjoy for the atmosphere, the acting, and the suspense of not quite knowing what’s going on, all of which Scorsese delivers in spades.
But Shutter Island is not a film to think about too hard; it doesn’t crystallize in hindsight into some perfect gestalt the way Memento does, and it fails to abide by an absolute logic of its own (the question of sanity giving it an easy out any time it fancies). It wants to demand multiple viewings, but it doesn’t warrant them. And that is the biggest disappointment of Shutter Island: Scorsese set the bar so high for himself that even in delivering a soundly entertaining film he couldn’t help but come up short.