Shutter Island

Posted on 11 March 2010

First, only one blog this week.  I know, ya’ll are streaming tears.  I can hear the lamentations of your women.  That’s what’s good in life, right?  Ahem.

Anyway, so I went and saw Shutter Island last night.  I had been told ahead of time to not expect your normal Sorcese or DiCaprio film, but I was still mildly optomistic, at least from the previews.  What I got was not quite what was advertised. (spoilers below fold).

So, what was I expecting?  I psychological thriller, duh, but I guess from the previews I was expecting something a little more mentally confusing.  As far as psych-ward thrillers go, it was pretty slow, though.  The scenes felt like they dragged out, and honestly barely kept me engaged enough to wonder what was coming next.  The dénouement dragged out, and what I think were supposed to riviting dream/hallucination sequences were stilted and almost boring.

Now that I’ve been scathing, what the movie did right: the last line was actually pretty powerful, even with all the baggage that was taken to set it up (ie, the whole movie).  And DiCaprio’s performance was usually pretty good, although he was a far more “broken” character than I had been led to believe from the trailer.  His neurosis was of a different kind that one usually sees, with flips from paranoia to rage to depression.  The only issue I had with his character, really, was more of a scripting issue than an acting one, as the movie in general is prone to very long strains of Talking Heads’ Exposition, even in hallucinations.

One thing that was rather good, though, was how Scorsese et al managed to capture the “hear what you want to hear, see what you want to see” part of schizophernia.  After you find out he is crazy, one can see how everything he heard, all the conversations he had, were him only hearing and seeing what he wanted.  Granted, you find out that the island personel are actually partaking in a giant Role Play with him, but still.

The music was pretty good, even when it was somehow off someway.  It was like the pieces that did not quiet fit added to the whole “not quite right” feeling.  The cinematography did the same, as the cuts often seemed jerky, with people in the wrong pose or stance in the second cut, only to be back in the original stance in the third.  Whether this was intentional or not, I do not know, but I want to think Scorsese would be veteran enough in the director’s chair to let something as simple as that escape him.

So, on the whole, I think I have to squint my eyes and say “I see what you did there” without being really affected by it.  The exposition, not to mention the lack of chemistry between DiCaprio and his hallucinations, pushed the envelope a little far on the almost experimental style of the movie.  It isn’t per se a “skip it” movie, but I’d recommend catching it on a matinee, or perhaps waiting for it to hit the cheap theaters or even DVD.  Just expect it to play with your mind in different ways that you are used to.  Subsequent rewatches may prove to better the experience, but at $9.50 a ticket, I’ll pass on finding out.