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Two U.S. marshals, Teddy Daniels and Chuck Aule, are summoned to a remote and barren island off the coast of Massachusetts to investigate the mysterious disappearance of a murderess from the island’s fortress-like hospital for the criminally insane.
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| Also Known As: |
Ashecliffe
Ashecliffe
Shutter Island
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| Production Status: |
In Production/Awaiting Release |
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| Genres: |
Action/Adventure, Thriller and Adaptation |
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| Running Time: |
2 hrs. 18 min. |
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| Release Date: |
February 19th, 2010 (wide) |
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| MPAA Rating: |
R for disturbing violent content, language and some nudity. |
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| Distributors: |
Paramount Pictures, Sony Pictures Releasing International (SPRI)
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| Production Co.: |
Phoenix Pictures, Sikelia Productions, Appian Way, Radiant Productions
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| Studios: |
Paramount Pictures
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| Filming Locations: |
Medfield, Massachusetts, United States
Medfield, Massachusetts, USA
Seoul, South Korea
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| Produced in: |
United States |
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The new horror film, “Shutter Island,” based on the popular novel by Dennis Lehane, represents a mid-range and mid-achievement for Scorsese in his post-Oscar phase every way. The film is dense in imagery but not rich enough in ideas, almost consistently entertaining but not entirely gripping, stylistically overwrought without being truly poignant.
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World-premiering at the 2010 Berlin Film Fest, “Shutter Island,” which will be released by Paramount in the U.S. on February 19, may divide critics, but should do reasonably well at the box-office (The film, touted to be Oscar contender, was pushed back from its original late fall date).
Even the quality of the acting is not consistently high. While DiCaprio, in a tough leading role, is commanding, some of the supporting actors, particularly the usually great Max von Sydow, are not very convincing, a function of the writing. And of the three women in the cast, Michelle Williams, Emily Mortimer, and Patricia Clarkson, only one truly shines, Clarkson, and in a dual role. Clarkson’s cave scene with DiCaprio, in the saga’s second half, is such a highlight in terms of acting and unsettling audience’s expectations that you wish the rest could have been on the same level.
Set in 1954, at the height of the McCarthy political witch-hunting, Cold War, UFO, and other paranoias, when Americans felt bewildered and insecure, not knowing what was going to happen next, “Shutter Island” blends the conventions of the horror, paranoia, thriller, detective, noir, and supernatural genres, with touches of psychological realism and claustrophobia as manifest in movies set within isolated prisons and asylums (there’s a long tradition of Hollywood pictures). On another level, the film could be perceived as Scorsese’s tribute to the classic German silent, made during the Weimar-period, “The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, directed by Thomas Wiener.
Predictably met with resistance, Teddy’s investigation runs into one obstacle after another. Before long, he begins to believe that he’s being manipulated, watched, perhaps even drugged and pushed into the dark edges of his own sanity. Is he being warned away from getting at the “bigger truth” of Shutter Island, or drawn into a horrific medical experiment? And if so, is he a subject or an object? Clearly, there are all sorts of hidden agendas that keep Teddy and Chuck (who barely talks in the first reel) in this frightening, isolated, and impenetrable place.
Gradually, it becomes clear that Teddy has come to Shutter Island devoted to solving a mystery, but that he’s also burdened by his own agenda and secrets. But is her reliable? There’s more to Teddy’s journey than there appears to be.
“Shutter Island” touches on the perennial Hitchcockian theme of appearances versus reality. The movie poses a question asked by all of us, at one point or another in our lives: Am I mad, or is the world around me mad? Whatâs real and what is not? Subjective versus objective reality? In the best Hitchcockian way, unfolding like a layer cake, the story is constantly jarring us, unsettling our sympathies, shifting and moving in various, unanticipated directions
Though the couple of sleuths, elegantly dressed in brown and beige suits, is starting to build trust, they’re always suspicious about each otherâs intentions. At one point, it seems that Chuck is out there to protect Teddy, but later on, it feels heâs pushing him towards a downfall, if not reckoning.
In her other part, Clarkson is like the Oracle of Delphi, engaged in a ritualistic encounter, but acting “normal,” and playing in straightforward manner with no tricks or gimmicks. She represents another twist and turn within a film that operates on several levels. Just when you think she might provide the truth, or at least some solace and peace of mind, not to mention the journey’s endpoint, you find out that there are more twists to come.
At first, the film seems to be just another intriguing noir detective story but, as it goes along, surprising (even shocking) events and new layers emerge, along with roller coaster twists, with characters getting stranger and stranger.
(Not to worry: All of the storyâs carefully-built skeletons of secrets are eventually exposed, if not explained). The story is like an archeological dig, made up of layers under layers.
Watching, or rather experiencing, “Shutter Island” is like being in a nightmare you canât wake up from, a nightmare that constantly keeps changing, getting darker and darker, stranger and stranger.Â
Reviewed on February 4, 2010.
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