Shutter Island Review

I love Scorsese. In fact, who doesn’t love Scorsese? The man has got to be one of the most reliable directors working in Hollywood today and is a true movie legend. The most recent work he has done with Leonardo Dicaprio, including Gangs of New York, The Aviator and The Departed, have all been standout films in the individual years that they were released. If you look further back to Taxi Driver, Raging Bull and Goodfellas; well, these are just some of the greatest films of all time. My personal Scorsese favorite is The King of Comedy. This film has such twisted, dark, black humor, and Jerry Lewis and Robert De Niro are so good as comedians with polar opposite levels of success (and sanity) that the film is a masterpiece.

Therefore, a new Scorsese film is a big deal to many people. Being a huge fan myself, a new Scorsese film is a big deal to me. Hearing that he had a new film coming out with the story concerning Dicaprio playing a Federal Marshal investigating a spooky asylum, my first response was excitement. However, after then hearing about the delays of Shutter Island without a decent reason (doe the GFC cop it for everything?), I became a little concerned. Then came the reviews. While they certainly weren’t panning the film, there was definitely not the same enthusiasm given to Shutter Island in comparison to the majority of the director’s work. I was now definitely worried. Has the master finally lost the magic after all these years?

Luckily, it only took the first few minutes of Shutter Island to make me feel reassured. With ominous, creepy music playing on the soundtrack, Leo is introduced as detective Teddy Daniels by splashing water on his seasick face, being determined to “keep it together”. Meanwhile, the ship he rides on sails through muggy, atmospheric fog, headed for the films titled destination. Already I had a huge smile on my face. Scorsese is having a blast playing with the film noir conventions. You can feel it right from the get go that he knows what he’s doing and I knew just from this scene that this movie was going to be really fun to watch.

I think, in some ways, that’s why this film was greeted with some of the lukewarm reviews that it received. When your filmography is as impressive as Scorsese’s, people expect that everything you do will surpass the limits of film, comment on the human condition and discuss topical issues. I’m not saying that Shutter Island isn’t deep and complex, far from it, but it is also a genre film. If you think that a director of this caliber should only be making high brow art, then this film isn’t for you. However, if you want one of the masters of cinema to blow your mind with scene after scene of spookiness and suspense then strap yourself for the rollercoaster and have a nice ride.

That being said, despite my enjoyment for the majority of the film, I couldn’t help but feel let down by the ending. Well, at least at first. Without giving anything away, a twist occurs in the plot that felt so cliché that I felt like they were ruining all the good work they had done prior to this moment. Despite this, the final scene in the film still blew me away. I may not have liked the twist but I liked the way that they followed through with it, all the way to the bitter end.

It wasn’t until afterwards that I began to think a little bit more about the film. While watching the movie I thought I understood the plot and the twist, but maybe I was wrong. Maybe there are clues that could lead you to a different conclusion and a different interpretation of what really happened. Could it be that I was fooled?

It was then that I realized that the twist was not cliché, it was just expecting me to question what I was seeing in every scene from beginning to end. I must have been too wrapped up in the enjoyment of each scene to realize it at the time. In fact, I retract what I said before, this film is high art, I was just enjoying myself too much to realize this while it was playing.

****