Scorsese and DiCaprio are back together doing what they do best-- making great films. This time around they benefit from the support of Ben Kingsley (this year's Christoph Waltz, who stole the show in Inglorious Basterds) and Mark Ruffalo (who, if you haven't figured it out by now, is among the most capable of all unsung actors working today). Perhaps mis-marketed as simply a gritty super-natural ... read more
i won't give it all away...
a marshal comes to an island were the worst of the worst of mental patients are being "treated" and you begin to learn the real story of why the marshal came here...and then the drugs kick in and things get really surreal crazy. you'll begin to wonder what the hell is going on and then wonder what the ... read more
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Martin Scorsese puts Leonardo DiCaprio through the wringer again in Shutter Island, a gothic adaptation of Dennis Lehane's novel. Leo's character, a Federal Marshal named Teddy Daniels, is first seen vomiting and jittery aboard a ferry; he and his new partner (Mark Ruffalo) are being taken across the water to investigate an esca0
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Martin Scorsese puts Leonardo DiCaprio through the wringer again in Shutter Island, a gothic adaptation of Dennis Lehane's novel. Leo's character, a Federal Marshal named Teddy Daniels, is first seen vomiting and jittery aboard a ferry; he and his new partner (Mark Ruffalo) are being taken across the water to investigate an escape from a prison for the criminally insane, located on a forbidding rock called Shutter Island. From the first, Scorsese treats the place as though it were Skull Island in King Kong, worthy of ominous music cues and portentous camera angles. This might not be an easy assignment for the sweaty, anxious Daniels, who is haunted by his memories of German concentration camps and the loss of his wife (Michelle Williams, appearing in ghostly hallucinations). The audience will likely feel just as unnerved as Daniels, given the destabilizing nature of Robert Richardson's swooping cinematography and Thelma Schoonmaker's crazy-making editing scheme (it feels as though fractions of seconds have been removed from the timing of simple conversations, giving the movie a strung-out edginess--it's like watching Ray Liotta's cocaine meltdown sequence from GoodFellas for 138 minutes). Ben Kingsley and Max von Sydow are staff psychiatrists, suspiciously eager to talk about lobotomies, and Ted Levine and Patricia Clarkson appear for small but potent turns. Scorsese appears to be "doing a genre picture" here, borrowing happily from influences such as Val Lewton and Samuel Fuller, and the film has a resultingly put-on atmosphere: a great deal of old-dark-house Sturm und Drang whipped up in service of a gimmicky little premise. The fade-out achieves some measure of real eeriness, and the whole shebang is certainly a kicky night out at the movies--if you can shake the sense that a talented filmmaker is working a couple of rungs beneath his level. --Robert Horton
a marshal comes to an island were the worst of the worst of mental patients are being "treated" and you begin to learn the real story of why the marshal came here...and then the drugs kick in and things get really surreal crazy. you'll begin to wonder what the hell is going on and then wonder what the real story is, who's who, and then it comes down to the final story...the real.
so you may guess what the basic story will be but its a good twisting turning trip that keeps making you watch and wonder and guess again. really for this type of movie its written pretty damn well.
my only real complaint about the film (well i thought dicaprio was unsuited to the marshal role...bu” read more
“Scorsese and DiCaprio are back together doing what they do best-- making great films. This time around they benefit from the support of Ben Kingsley (this year's Christoph Waltz, who stole the show in Inglorious Basterds) and Mark Ruffalo (who, if you haven't figured it out by now, is among the most capable of all unsung actors working today). Perhaps mis-marketed as simply a gritty super-natural horror story, Shutter Island is so much more-- a convincing period piece, a visually stunning fever-dream, and, excuse the cliche, a top-shelf, knock em all over and win the biggest f***ing stuffed panda out of the sweat shop, psychological thriller. Granted, there's nothing in this movie, plot-wise, that hasn't been done before, it's just that it's seldom been done this well. Here Scorsese strays” read more
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