In 2007, after a long career of memorable, outstanding films, including Mean Streets, Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, The King Of Comedy, The Last Temptation of Christ, Goodfellas, Cape Fear, The Aviator (the list can go on); Martin Scorsese finally won his best picture Oscar that so shockingly illuded him for the whole duration of his career, with the excellent cop thriller The Departed. The next move in the saga of Scorsese would always be one of interest. Despite directing in between Shine A Light, a Rolling Stones documentary, his newest cinematic venture is the much anticipated Shutter Island.
Shutter Island is adapted from a novel of the same name by author Dennis Lehane, who also wrote Mystic River, which proved excellent material for Clint Eastwood in 2003. Set in 1954, it tells the tale of U.S. Marshal Teddy Daniels (Scorsese regular Leonardo DiCaprio, in his fourth film with the director) and his newly assigned case of investigating the disappearance of a psychotic murderess, who had escaped from the mental facility on the remote Shutter Island. With this exciting synopsis, a fantastic director, a great ensemble cast of DiCaprio, Mark Ruffalo, Ben Kingsley, Max Von Sydow, Michelle Williams, Ted Levine, Emily Mortimer, Patricia Clarkson and Jacky Earl Haley and a damn fine looking trailer, the film had alot of positivity going for it. However upon viewing, i was met with a terrible disappointment.
The film begins fine (despite some shonky green-screen work), with the hint that it could lead to a taut, horrifying experience, and it really did, but in most ways, the wrong reasons. If treated in a different way, it may not have become so very disappointing, but this was not to be. From a well started piece, the film looses itself with uneven bursts of surreal dreams, that last far too long than they should, and despite the visual elements, they become extremely wordy and explanitory rather than effectively showing the audience, letting them work it out instead of effectively told. Thus, the effectiveness of the dreams/flashbacks fall into a heap. Possibly he should have looked at his own Bringing Out The Dead, whos dream/hallucination sequences were quite effective and mysterious. In the moments of reality, there is also a tendancy for the characters to talk in circles, taking away any form of pace the film could garner.
It is an amazingly odd thing that this is happening to a Scorsese picture, usually a flawless track record. He is not the one at true fault here. The script is heavy and dense with detail that could be done in a simpler and more effective manner, but the fact Scorsese lets the film become this, is something dissappointing, becoming more and more convoluted, especially the twists and turns which become more and more ridiculous until the very end that would make M. Night Shyamalan proud, and this is not a good thing. Scorsese you can do better than this! The material may have fared better if went the way of a similar film, the 1991 film Jacob’s Ladder, directed by Adrian Lyne, which proved to be quite a surreal, frightening experience which remained tense and mysterious the whole way through, right until the satisfying end. The movie shows the audience, it doesn’t get pulled down by details in the script. It showed, it didn’t tell. Again, something Shutter Island failed to do.
The performances aren’t all bad. Leonardo DiCaprio holds the film and its convoluted confusion firmly on his shoulders, but he does deliver in doses. The scene where his character interviews inmates proves to be quite a tense, entertaining one, especially his wonderful use of a lead pencil. Yet by the end the heavy hand of the story causes him to drag the film along, so it may, at some point, finish. I believe that the Scorsese/DiCaprio relationship has become stale and needs fresh air, after three consecutive films together. Scorsese has worked with Robert De Niro on six projects, however it is my belief that the only way they kept the relationship fresh was to spend time apart.
Mark Ruffalo plays for good support, but not much of a stretch, as his character seems quite monotone, even with the events that transpire during the climax. Ben Kingsey also proves solid support in his first few scenes, however soon becomes quite an unpleasant presence by the very end, however, during the climax, he does provide excellent support at telling the audience how amazing/shocking the climax should be, in turn, not a very good thing.
Michelle Williams is rather dull as the apparition of Daniels wife, who haunts him in numerous visions, which as mentioned, last exceedingly too long to be effective. Her character proves a distasteful one, due to her ordering nature, telling what should be done, as if she were a check-list for Daniels and the audience. In the smaller parts, Ted Levine and Jacky Earl Haley make for useless cameos, whereas Max Von Sydow is always great value, playing a rather ominous german doctor, and the characters that Emily Mortimer and Patricia Clarkson portray prove more interesting.
The film seemed, at very least, a very well put together film visually, however i, to my horror, was given a large amount of seemingly amateur editing, and a score that proves most overbearing to the film, especially at the start, only working in two scenes with a more subtle, creepier soundscape is used, being the War dream in the prison camp and Daniels flashback at the very end, creating an unsettling atmosphere the film so needed the whole time.
With these negativities, there were still good moments, such as the forementioned patient interviews, the tense questioning of the doctors motives in the cemetary, the creepy game of tag in Ward C, the very last scene. Alas these are but parts, and you could see that Scorsese wanted to create a very inner psychological experience, in the end confuses the viewer of reality and dream, which could have played an excellent compliment to Taxi Driver and The King Of Comedy, both showing the outer psychological experience from a third person view. But here, with the heavy, twisted, and ultimately cliched story structure, the idea fails to flourish; a mighty shame.
In all, it is a sadly disappointing film experience from Martin Scorsese. There will be people who will actually enjoy this, but compared to what Scorsese has previously produced, and the previous greater entries into this type of genre, like the fantastic Jacob’s Ladder, it proves a dissappointment. Show, don’t tell Martin.
2.5/5
