Mark Ruffalo (L) and Leonardo DiCaprio (R) star in “Shutter Island.” (allmoviephoto.com)
Martin Scorsese has done it again. “Shutter Island” opened this weekend, topping the box office with 40.2 million and claiming a spot in his lineup of classics.
In an interview with Good Morning America, Scorsese described the film as multiple genres rolled into one movie.
He said that when reading the script, based on the novel by Dennis Lehane (Mystic River), even he was surprised by every plot twist.
Leonardo DiCaprio plays U.S. Marshal Teddy Daniels, who has chosen to take on the assignment of a patient’s escape from Ashecliffe, the ward on Shutter Island for the criminally insane.
On the ferry to the island, he meets his partner for the assignment, Chuck Aule, played by Mark Ruffalo (Just like Heaven). On a note of interest, pay attention to how often Aule calls Daniels ‘boss.’
What begins as a crime drama shifts to a thriller when the head psychiatrists of the ward (Ben Kingsley, Max von Sydow) appear to be drugging Daniels, allowing the demons in his past to drive him insane.
These traumas from his past are shown to the audience in shaky flashbacks and nightmares.
Scorsese, a zealous film buff, gives very conspicuous nods to Hitchcock, allowing the angle, editing and quality of the shot itself to manipulate the audience in the way that only film can. What first may appear to be a poorly filmed scene is later realized as proof of an unreliable narrator. Or is it?
“Shutter Island” does seem to struggle with the ending. About the last half-hour of its 138-minute running time, is spent explaining who actually is insane.
For a movie that lures in the audience with the promise of intrigue, it seems inconsistent that so much time would be spent ‘wrapping it up.’ This may be easily overlooked for the sake of entertainment, but it seems to discount the abstract form of the movie.
After masterfully inserting the audience into the head of a tortured detective, only to distort their perception over and over, Scorsese’s film firmly stands as both engrossing and thought provoking.
“Shutter Island” ends with a question that is very obviously meant to summarize the movie’s intention and spark conversation: “Is it better to live as a monster or die a good man?”
