Shutter Island Reviews

Esta película la considero, probablemente, la más infravalorada de Martin Scorsese.

Este film tiene todo lo que a mucha gente le gusta de este tipo de películas. La dirección es asombrosa, crea un ambiente de suspenso muy inquietante que llega incluso a ser aterrador. Su paleta de colores encaja perfectamente en el film dándole sabor al ambiente que crea.
Lo más destacable de la cinta es sin duda sus actuaciones, soberbias, no hay otra forma de describirlas, principalmente la de Leonardo Dicaprio quien hace uno de sus mejores papeles de su carrera (Y definitivamente mejor que el de "The Revenant").

Sobre la construcción de la historia, esta termina siendo un arma de doble filo. Por un lado estuvieron bien manejadas las secuelas del protagonista de sus traumas por la guerra y la muerte de su esposa, también hubo cosas bien anticipadas. Por el otro lado aunque el giro de tuerca es interesante, es cierto puede llegar a ser predecible, es especial por la escena de Jackie Earle Haley; también está el hecho de que al soltar varias revelaciones hace parecer que la película no sabe qué contar antes del desenlace. Aunque esto lo compensa más o menos con un final bastante bueno y que deja una frase para reflexionar, aún así no la puedo considerar una obra maestra, pero sigue siendo una buena película.

Les recomiendo "The Machinist", que tiene un concepto parecido, pero con un guión más pulido y mejor llevado.

I do not understand sh*t but I loved it!!
DiCaprio did a fine job. honstly I can not imagine anyone playing this character but him.

The US has carried out numeorus experiments on its powerless citizens- people with learning disabilities, mental health problems, physical sickness, prisoners and racial minorities, as well as other nationalities; using deadly diseases, toxic and radioactive chemicals, surgical experiments, sterilising, torture etc etc. Maybe Scorsese might give us a film on that reality, instead of a Caligari horror version?

The best thing about this movie, besides the cinematography, which, surprisingly, I liked a lot (perhaps because it was dark and morose) is the fact that it keeps you in suspense. Leo di Caprio was never a favorite of mine, but I’ll admit that he can get into character well at times, and in this movie he did.

shutter island was pretty predictable for me. That is the whole reason why i decided to watch it in first place, everyone was crazy about the turn of events in the movie and that made me pretty much curious as fuck - oh well, big disappointment for me there…

All in all it was a nice movie because of the tension and the suspense. It could’ve done better.

يعد المخرج (مارتن سكورسيزي) احد اهم مخرجي جيل السبعينات، الذي عرف عنه اهتمامه بمدارس التشويق. ولد سكورسيزي في نيويورك عام 1942، وبدا نشاطه الفني ككاتب للسيناريو في عدد من الافلام، قبل ان يخرج فيلمه الاول (الذي a بنت لطيفة مثل أنت تَعْملُ في a تَضِعُ مثل هذه) عام 1963.
اخرج سكورسيزي (34) فيلما طوال تاريخه السينمائي التي تعد من العلامات البارزة في تاريخ السينما نشير منها الى (الشوارع الخلفية: 1973) الذي يعد ابرز ما قدم في السينما الحديثة، وفيلمه (سائق التاكسي:1976) الذي نال به سعفة مهرجان كان الذهبية، وفيلمه (الثور الهائج: 1980)، وفيلم (بعد ساعات: 1986) الذي نال به جائزة الاخراج في كان، وفيلم (الاغواء الاخير للمسيح:1988)، و(عصر البراءة:1993)، و(كازينو:1995)، و(الطيار:2004)، ونال الاوسكار مرة واحدة عن (المغادر:2006).
يتسم أسلوب سكورسيزي السينمائي باتقانه لعناصر التشويق وخلق انفعالات بالغة التوتر، وسيادة الوازع الديني والبحث عن المغفرة والتخلي عن الخطايا، ثم ان مدينة نيويورك تشّكل هاجسا دائم الوجود في اغلب افلامه، اللهم الا فيلمه الاخير (الجزيرة المنغقلة: 2010).
وفيه يواكب المخرج رحلة المحققين (تيدي دانيالز: ليوناردو ديكابريو) و(تشاك اول: مارك روفالو) الى جزيرة شاتير على سواحل بوسطن للتحقيق في سر اختفاء نزيلة مستشفى الامراض العقلية (راشيل سولاندو: إيميلي مورتمر) المتهمة بقتل ابناءها الثلاثة من غرفتها المحكمة بقضبان حديدية، هناك يلتقي بالطبيب المريب (كاولي: بن كينغيسلي) الذي ياخذه الى غرفة راشيل ليعثر على ورقة فيها رموز غريبة ومبهمة.
في رحلة بحث (تيدي) عن سر اختفاء (سولاندو) تبدأ بعض الكوابيس مطاردته تبلغه فيها زوجته القتيلة (:ميشيل ويليامز) بحريق غامض بان الشخص المتهم بقتلها (اندرو ليداس) موجود في المستشفى، وهناك تصبح مهمة (تيدي) البحث عن الاثنين معا، ويحتدم الصراع بعدما يكتشف فى النهاية أن المريضة التى يبحث عنها ليست مجنونة بل دكتورة نفسية مرموقة اتهموها بالجنون وحاولوا تدمير عقلها، وأن الرحلة الى الجزيرة ما هي الا رحلة علاجية دبرت من قبل السلطات لتحرير (تيدي) من اعباء الماضي.
الفيلم مقتبس من قبل (لايتا كالوغرديس) عن رواية بالاسم نفسه صدرت عام 2003 للكاتب (دينس ليهان)، كاتب الرواية الكبيرة الاخرى (النهر الباطن) التي اقتبسها (براين هيلغلاند) واخرجها (كلينت ايستودد) عام 2003، وايضا كاتب رواية (اذهب طفلي اذهب) والتي اقتبسها (ارون ستوكارد) واخرجها (بين افليك) عام 2007. وفيه يتم قلب الاوهام الى حقائق ويترك للمشاهد معرفة ما ستؤول اليه النهاية.
في (الجزيرة المنغلقة) استطاع سكورسيزي أن يزرع الخوف داخل نفوس المشاهدين، بفضل تكوين المشاهد الرائع الذي خلق الاحساس بسعة المكان ورعبه، مما جعل الجمهور يتفاعل بشكل كبير مع بطله المتلاشي بين الالوان الرمادية والداكنة.. وعلى الرغم من الاستناد الواضح على اجواء واساليب الراحل (الفريد هتشكوك) الا ان سكورسيزي اضفى نجح في ارساء قواعد التوتر الدرامي ومن اللحظة الاولى للفيلم، واستطاع التلاعب بعقل المشاهد لتكون كل الأحداث مفاجئة له وغير متوقعة نتيجة سلوك شخصياته ودوافعها الدرامية، فضلا عن الموسيقى الرائعة التي تنبأ بالخطر قبل وقوعه وبذكاء.
اما من جانب الاداء الدرامي فقد نجح (ليوناردو ديكابريو) في التعبير عن حالة القلق والتوتر التي ترافق الاحداث، لاسيما وانه يتحمل اعباء القصة منفردا، ولا تغفل هنا التفاتات النجم الكبير (بن كنغيلسي)

I find it ironic that the notoriously selective Leonardo DiCaprio within such a short amount of time picked two films with so much in common on the surface level. Both feature men wracked with guilt and emotional scarring that is barely contained below the surface. Both feature men dealing with puzzling memories of dead wives and long-lost children. Both feature men going into our dreams and psychosis to make sense of the outer realm. Inception is the better of the two, and most likely the one that is going to go into essential status, Shutter Island is a terrifically fun locked-in-an-asylum psychological thriller. It’s nowhere near the artistic level of DiCaprio’s and Martin Scorsese’s previous efforts, but it is a fantastic example of genre filmmaking.

From the opening musical notes to the stark, sometimes blinding, cinematography, doom, gloom and ominous to be expressed through characterization, dialogue and actions instead of absurdly loud, ponderous, nauseous action scenes. Leave it to a filmmaker from a previous generation to remember these basics of effective storytelling. And that is probably the thing that I appreciated the most about Shutter Island. It relied on telling a story well instead of getting from plot point A to B with as many explosions as possible. The story itself I found to be fairly predictable, but I didn’t mind. I was enthralled by how well it was done, how good each performance is, how detailed and period specific each costume, set and prop is. A lot of love and care went into this movie, and it shows through in each frame. It might not be a classic, but it’s very solid.

And the more I view the work of Michelle Williams and Leonardo DiCaprio, the more enraptured I become of their talents. Their ranges are impressive and their techniques couldn’t be more different. DiCaprio is the heir-apparent to the Method thrones of such towering figures as Marlon Brando, Montgomery Clift, Jack Nicholson and Robert De Niro. His ability to convey such complicated emotions, to not care about looking like hell, to sweat, stammer, be unlikable to the audience is astounding. He does whatever is right for the character, and he is always interesting to watch. And Michelle Williams has grown to be a minimalist actress who seems to be emotions rather than convey them. She embodies her characters with an all-encompassing focus and drive that’s daunting to think about attempting. I look forward to her work in My Week With Marilyn because of this tremendous amount of subtle work. If any actress could do proper justice to Monroe’s legacy, it is Williams, despite not looking much like her subject.

I’ve heard and read some reviews which indicate that the largeness of some of the films choices is too much for them. I disagree. We’re in a movie which follows a character with deep psychological trauma, scars upon scars which we cannot see or even imagine. Things have not healed, nor will they ever. I feel like to amp up the drama, atmospherics and claustrophobia to near operatic levels is a smart choice to help put us inside of his head. We’re not dealing with someone who came out of the WWII trenches completely mentally or emotionally intact.

Really, Scorsese should just give it away for anyone. The man is one of the most brilliant directors of our time. Anyway, let me get to the actual movie; I just saw it at a early screening and have to write this while I'm thinking about how stunning it was. Shutter Island is certainly not a typical film, not even for Scorsese. It is a different take for the director, and he does it, as he does every film, perfectly, so much as to be in his own league of film-making. I don't want to give anything away, but I will say this: Shutter Island was completely unexpected, and a great start to 2010. It had all the components of a great film, and then some. The acting is spot on from every character; none of it seems forged or out of place. The script is fantastic; it has one of the most intriguing plots I have seen in a while (exception being Tarantino's Basterds). Everything, down to the set's lighting, was perfectly executed. I will say that not everyone will like this; Shutter Island, again, isn't your typical movie. To those, though, who do choose to see this film, be ready for a compelling, gripping, thought-provoking experience, so much so that you might think to see it again for further clarity (I know I will; it was so entertaining and my mind was blown!). Don't be surprised if you see this at the next Oscars...

I vaguely recall an article I read back in the fall of 2006, shortly before the release of Martin Scorsese's THE DEPARTED. The article mentioned that some of that film's studio execs said, "No, no, THE DEPARTED isn't intended as an 'Oscar season' movie; it's intended as mere mainstream entertainment." As it ultimately turned out, it looks like the film was actually intended as both, and it succeeded immensely as both. But perhaps the SHUTTER ISLAND studio execs should've issued that warning for Scorsese's latest film, as that may have calmed down the spree of people who are scratching their heads as to why the renowned director didn't give us yet another masterpiece here. It's very obvious that that simply wasn't the intention. SHUTTER ISLAND is psychologically stimulating and intriguing, without necessarily being psychologically haunting: it doesn't aspire to be anything more than just a good movie, and that's perfectly fine. This explains why it was moved from being released during "awards season" to February. To be honest, I'm delighted that something as intelligent and engaging as SHUTTER ISLAND is getting released at this point in the year, because it's a reprieve from the dross that normally occupies multiplexes right now.

With that said, though, there IS a reason why high expectations for SHUTTER ISLAND weren't necessarily unwarranted: the film is based on a novel by Dennis Lehane, who also wrote two novels that became fantastic film adaptations: MYSTIC RIVER and GONE BABY GONE. However, as SHUTTER ISLAND gets underway, it becomes fairly obvious that we're dealing with different material here, and really, a different genre altogether. Rather than being a restrained, dialogue-driven drama, it's more of a frenetic psychological thriller. One thing they do have in common, though, is the presence of a "twist" ending of sorts.

SHUTTER ISLAND doesn't necessarily reveal its twist at the beginning, but it sure as heck points us in the direction of it very heavily. The first few scenes feature too many instances of federal marshal Teddy Daniels (Leonardo DiCaprio) staring around curiously with a face that screams "Hmmm, I've seen this before," and if there's people who don't find that obvious enough, there's an actual LINE in those early scenes that makes it even clearer. Perhaps it's a good idea, though, because it lets the audience know pretty much from the beginning that we shouldn't necessarily "trust" the perspective of our protagonist. We see everything from his point of view... but something's obviously not right.

While the sense of paranoia is constant here, some of the film's scenes work better than others. There's a slightly off-putting sequence that features a "dream within a dream," but doesn't quite work as effectively as it should because the first dream is remarkably longer than the second one, thus making the second one feel almost like an insignificant afterthought. The weather is used much more often than it should be, and there's no doubt that the rainstorms become repetitive after a while. The film is far better at conveying fear during its interior scenes during which the dark, gothic atmosphere is constantly palpable. The VERY BEST scene in the movie takes place in a cave that's right next to a shore. All I'll say about it is that it's Patricia Clarkson's one scene in the film and that she is spectacular in it, and that the dialogue during the scene is expertly rendered - if anyone wasn't intrigued by the film at this point, they surely will be after this scene.

As is often the case in movies with a twist ending, the final scenes get way too caught up in explaining everything away. We've seen it before, but it's a little more disheartening to see it involve actors of the caliber of Leonardo DiCaprio and Ben Kingsley. I have more things to say about the resolution, but I'll reserve them for the "spoilers" section at the end of the review.

There's no doubt that the film's purpose is to screw with your mind. If you love that, then you'll delight heartily in SHUTTER ISLAND, and you'll then want to see it again to try to see if there are plot holes in light of the climax's revelations. I don't think there are plot holes, though some may argue that there are things that some characters "did" in early scenes that don't make sense, but for any instance in which someone argues something like that, there'll surely be another viewer who will be able to come up with a reasonable explanation in light of the film's events. Any film that is capable of creating that kind of discussion and of being so engrossing and mentally stimulating, particularly at this time of the year, is more than welcome in my mind, regardless of whether or not it was made by a director from whom we've come to expect near perfection.

*SPOILER WARNING*

A discussion of SHUTTER ISLAND doesn't feel complete without at least commenting on its revelatory final act. When Teddy discovers that, not only is that not his real name and that he is not a visiting federal marshal, but that he's actually been a patient in SHUTTER ISLAND for the last two years, I was telling myself, "Pleeeease, let this not be for sure." Given the fact that, right before this revelation comes, we were under the assumption that Teddy really was a federal marshal and that he was just being drugged and manipulated, I was hoping that perhaps there was a chance that they were simply drugging and manipulating him INTO thinking that he'd been a patient there for the last two years, and that the movie would simply end without us knowing for sure. However, too many things happen after the revelation that seem to make it obvious that the revelation is actually true, the most notable being Mark Ruffalo's character shaking his head "no" at the end (which may be one of the few, if not the only, moment in the film in which the audience does NOT see something from the perspective of DiCaprio's character). I still appreciate the fact that the ending is complex (and emotionally devastating, at some moments), but I guess that sometimes I prefer not being given the answer so deliberately, especially by a movie that thrived so much during its first two thirds in confounding the viewer, and did so well at it.

What happens when you realize whatever you know and believe in, is nothing but a figment of your imagination? What happens when the difference between surreal and real starts diminishing? What happens when you find yourself stuck in a mental asylum located on a deserted island with no where to go and no one to trust, not even your own instincts!

Oscar winning filmmaker Martin Scorsese reteams with his muse Leonardo DiCaprio in one of the most pulsating and mind-boggling suspense thrillers of all time ‘Shutter Island’.

Two U.S. marshals, Teddy Daniels (Leonardo DiCaprio) and Chuck Aule (Mark Ruffalo) are summoned to a remote island ‘Shutter Island’, meant for the criminally insane, to investigate the mysterious disappearance of one of the patients who also happens to be a murderer. Dr Cawley (Ben Kingsley) head psychiatrist of the mental asylum lends a helping hand to the two in their investigation.

As Teddy and Chuck begin their investigation, they realize there’s more to the island and its inhabitants than meets the eye. Every step the two take towards solving the mystery that grips the shutter island, they find themselves tangled in a dangerous and twisted tale of shock and despair that seems far from real. How the two unleash the appalling truth and struggle to stay alive in a hope that they would manage to get out of the horrifying ‘Shutter Island’ one day, forms the story.

Shutter Island will remind you a lot of Memento, in terms of its treatment and story progression. Shutter Island too keeps shuttling between past and present and thus real and unreal. Scorsese brilliantly plays his cards when it comes to story telling as he unravels the plot in a way which forces a viewer to sub consciously strive hard to solve the mystery himself as he sees the events unfold onscreen. The way Scorsese orchestrates each character in the film is brilliant, no one is quite who they seem. The film sends chills down your spine with every scene and can well be tagged as Scorsese’s brand of psychological horror.

The open ended climax is baffling and one of the most ambiguous endings you might see in ages but it’s totally worth the build-up. This very reason elevates the film to a different league when compared to films from the same genre.

Writer Laeta Kalogridis deserves a standing ovation for penning a nail-biting tight screenplay, full of double-crossing twists & turns, revelations and thrills that will not let you bat an eyelid even once.

A superb background score perfectly maintains the sombre & haunting mood of the film. Scorsese’s film manages to keep you on the edge of your seat, thanks to an intense performance by a brooding Leonardo DiCaprio and a faintly wicked Sir Ben Kingsley. Leonardo DiCaprio essays the complex role of a man, who is haunted by the ghosts of his past while he is forced to live yet another nightmare in the form of Shutter Island. Your heart reaches out for his character and his dilemmas. Mark Ruffalo plays his part well.

If you are intrigued by gripping and intense psychological thrillers, Shutter Island is an absolute must watch. Martin Scrosese, once again proves he is a master of his craft. Ironically, this one’s way scarier than another horror release of this week, ‘Nightmare on Elm Street’!