Movie Review: Shutter Island (2010)
While not perfect, Scorsese gives us reason to go to the theater
Photo: Paramount Pictures
NOTE: It's nearly impossible to review this film without revealing something that may spoil your theatrical experience. That said, you may want to skip the review entirely if you are already planning on seeing the movie to ensure you get the most out of the feature.
Martin Scorsese's Shutter Island is a genre film that doesn't necessarily confine itself to any one genre, least of all horror, which is what the trailers seem to be insistent on selling even though there isn't a scare to be found. Instead this is a modern day noir thriller wrapped up in a whodunit that gets better as it moves along, even though it seems to be trying too hard the entire time. Daunting music accompanies the opening title sequence and then never lets up to the point most of the atmospheric embellishments become their own cliche.
It's 1954 and Leonardo DiCaprio stars as U.S. marshal Teddy Daniels. Teddy and his partner Chuck (Mark Ruffalo) are making their way to the Ashecliffe mental hospital located on the ever-looming Shutter Island. It's on this island a patient has escaped and Teddy and Chuck are here to get to the bottom of things, and the deeper they look the more suspicious the situation becomes.
The cast includes Leonardo DiCaprio, Mark Ruffalo, Ben Kingsley, Michelle Williams, Max von Sydow, Patricia Clarkson, Emily Mortimer, Jackie Earle Haley, Ruby Jerins and Christopher Denham. For more information on this film including pictures, trailers and a detailed synopsis choose from the following menu.
Review
"Shutter Island" is a Paramount Pictures release, directed by Martin Scorsese and is rated R for disturbing violent content, language and some nudity. The running time is 2 hours 18 minutes.
Impossible to ignore, though, is the devilish, "look at me" performance of Ben Kingsley playing the island's chief psychiatrist Dr. Cawley. There's something off about this guy, and Kingsley does everything he can to make sure when he's in a scene you know he's there. It's not a bad performance per se (and he does pull it together in the end), just an exaggerated one.
As much as there may be subtlety to DiCaprio's performance, Kingsley is where the audience will find blatant winks and nods, offering all the clues you'll need to solve the Shutter Island mystery. For the most part this is fine. The film isn't interesting enough otherwise and would have only served to upset the audience in the end had things been too concealed. In fact, the end is where Shutter Island deserves a pat on the back, with Michelle Williams deserving a lot of the praise. Williams is peppered throughout the film but really comes through late in the game.
Having read the Dennis Lehane novel of which Shutter Island is based, the end was my biggest concern walking into the theater. However, whereas the book delivers a gotcha moment that made me want to tear out the book's pages and burn them; the film assumes you are along for the ride and even if you aren't, attempts to do enough to soften the blow.
If anything, the biggest issue I suspect most people will have is the fact Shutter Island takes place in the real world, but makes up its own rules. While those rules can find basis in reality it may not be enough to convince detractors. When a film makes its own rules you either have to accept them or you can guarantee they are going to frustrate you, especially when the entire premise hinges on that acceptance.
In all fairness, having read the book the film was based on and having lowered expectations as a result, my opinion on the ending was certainly swayed by having prior knowledge of the events as they unfolded. However, Scorsese delivered a much better film than I expected, and along with Scorsese, much of the praise goes to the talented cast (certainly Jackie Earle Haley whom I have yet to mention) as this film relies heavily on its actors, and outside of my mild complaints about Kingsley, it is excellently played.
The musical choices bothered me and the film could have used a pacing pick-me-up as it got a bit redundant in the third act with needless exposition, but for the most part it had my attention. How the film will play to someone that isn't already in the know is something I can't answer, but I suspect it will be supported by the majority.
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Saw it yesterday, in my opinion, it was an amazing, flawlessly crafted atmospheric thriller. A blast. As far as "acceptance" goes, I had no trouble with it.
I got the ending spoiled for me, but in all those 20 minutes of climax there is so much, that I was still shaken and almost downright shocked. It's not just "*** is ***", there's much more to the ending and I loved it. The final line, combined with the final shot and haunting music, was absolutely chilling, and I sincerely, and maybe naively – who knows – hope that DiCaprio wins an Oscar for this. One of his very best performances.
Overall, great film, and I'm sure as hell watching ut again this weekend. Hope it does well at the B.O., too.
I 10000% agree
I couldn't agree more. I loved every minute of it, and the ending was just chilling.
I didn't read this review because I didn't want anything to get spoilt for me…but unfortunately I have to wait a whole month to see this. Why is it coming out so late in the UK?
I saw it last night and was extremely disappointed.. The post-production dialogue, shoddy green screen, terrible CGI, and mediocre performances from Williams and Ruffalo (DiCaprio was great, of course) really took me out of the story and made it difficult for me to make any real emotional connection.. I however, seem to be the only one who felt this way (out of my group of friends and from what I've read online..) anyone else experience anything similar?
saw it this morning and i agree with you. DiCaprio and kingsley…fantastic, but i expected more from Martin Scorsese. maybe if he didnt make this film i would be less disapointed and would have enjoyed it more. i thought its was entertaining, dont get me wrong people, it was entertaining but as Phil said the CGI was not very good and when you have that cast with that director you expect better. As Brad said above about the music throught, it drove me nuts. way too much and way over the top. there were many scenes that should not have had music, just background noise, as to add to the sense of spookyness, that i never really felt. if you havent seen it dont go thinking Martin Scorsese did it, just go to be entertained and you'll get more out of it.
I'm sure this movie is disappointing since its release date was moved a million times to the empty hollow following Valentine's Day weekend. And I'm sure that this film went up a few notches in ratings because Scorcese was directing and DiCaprio was starring.
Might be a good DVD, who knows.
Was anyone else blown away by Patricia Clarkson's performance? I certainly was.
I was blown away by every single performance
I saw this film at the Berlinale and found it rather hard to sit through. The plot twist becomes rather apparent during the movie and the dream or subconscious sequences come across as "David Lynch for the poor". I liked de Caprio's performance, but Ben Kingsley's I found almost unbearable. (liked Max von Sydow, though) Also the horror-suspense elements were almost childish, as if someone was shouting "Boooh" much too often. A very flawed untertaking by a great director and a great actor.
Loved it.
martins been putting leo in great movies for years, finally here he gives the movie to dicaprio, he certain ly should be on the radar all year
I was thinking if you want a somewhat similar type of psychological thriller, Session 9 is much more enjoyable all around not to mention the payoff is 10x better
I liked this a lot. Not Scorsese's best, but still pretty good. I thought all the performances were fine. The twist didn't bother me much, which is what I think most people have a problem with. I think the Author of the book would be more to blame than the Director and screenwriter.
Saw it today. It was a good film based off a book that would not really make a good movie. Scorsese made the film good. Leonardo DiCaprio was great, not Oscar-worthy but great. Now if this film was released back in October in time for the Oscars. I could only see it getting nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay and perhaps Best Picture replacing The Blind Side or District 9. This film captivated me for the first hour, but after it lost a lot of steam. The film pulls you along for something big to happen, but you have already figured most of it out in the first half and plus the big thing at the end was that big. This was good, but no where near as good as Scorsese's pictures normally are.
I felt like I was having deja vu the entire film. Is this movie a remake or is there something out there that was very, very similiar? I swear I've seen that exact story somewhere!!! Please help.
You did when it came out the 1st time it was called, "Fight Club". Then they remade it again and it was called, "Secret Window".
H, You are right. I feel it's an older movie perhaps made in the 50's or 60's. I'm racking my brain, but I feel it's out there as well.
I also saw a movie in the past two years that was almost identical – even with the cave in the cliffside and the missing woman in the cave. Can you remember any of the actors in it? I thought I remembered one of the actors and then looked up a filmography list to see the movies he was in but it wasn't him. I'm pretty sure I saw it on one of my movie channels. I had the same feeling that Shutter Island was a remake too.
you are not crazy. Although that's how im feeling right now.
i saw this exact movie a few years ago too – the whole damn plot and story exactly like that – unfortunately i forget who was in it – and i hate that no one else seems to know. drivin me nuts.
let me know if you've solved it – put my mind at rest – lol
Exactly what i was thinking ive seen this plot in a few different movies, i predicted the ending less than half way through, thanks for the BS review.
SPOILERS
"Scorsese choose not to make either the aforementioned Oscar-bait prestige picture or a straightforward popcorn horror/thriller. What we have here is something that chooses to experiment and take sidetracks. I’m tempted to say it’s just Scorsese having fun making a movie after finally nabbing his Best Director prize, but there are deeper, more passionate ideas at work here. You can’t deny that Scorsese is gleefully rubbing his hands together behind the monitor as he evokes Val Lewton, Alfred Hitchcock and Luis Bunuel along the way but there’s a deep psychological thread running throughout this film. Scorsese is as dedicated as ever when telling a story that puts character first. Teddy Daniels ain’t no Jake LaMotta or Travis Bickle but he’s willing to do everything to prove to you that he is.
Here’s where we come to the whole twist thing; if you didn’t have it, the character of Teddy Daniels played as predictably intense yet still terrific by Leonardo DiCaprio would easily be some cypher in a spook-a-blast-pulp-yarn. Instead, Scorsese (or I guess I should give credit to Dennis Lehane) is making a story that’s purely character driven and meant to actually stay with you. You remove the twist and you just have a fun movie. Again though, this is no Oscar-bait; simply put, Scorsese goes balls deep with the experimental imagery. Most of the surrealist sequences are far more deliberately strange the way something like Aqua Teen Hunger Force is (I know, weird comparison) than coming from a deep-rooted mind like the work of David Lynch. Still though, it plays like gangbuster. I felt Teddy’s psychological torment and that was what made the boat ride to Shutter Island worth it. It’s about the journey, not the destination. The twist is predictable but it’s so against the point to just focus on that. If this were some Dark Castle-production then I would likely roll my eyes and groan. We invest in the plight and therefore the ending just comes as more of a powerful reminder than a “OHNOYOUDI’NT”. It may dabble a bit into “Norman Bates dressed as his mother blah blah blah” school of exposition towards the end but I could overlook it for the deeper areas it alluded to."
BlueVelvetBayou-AD Forums
"A friend pointed out how clunky the opening scene is in terms of the dialogue and the overbearing music on the approach to the island, which at first seems like a blunt homage to 50's films, but I think Scorsese is doing something more specific here in terms of setting up a false reality, where things seem fake right from the beginning. The whole dialogue between the two sounds like play acting, as if Ruffalo is still getting used to his role in the fantasy. "
Lazarus-AD Forums
http://awardsdailyforums.com/showthread.php?t=20696&page=5
I think these folks over at the Ad forums made some great observations.
No this movie is an exact replica of something I've already seen…. what is it???
My son was telling me about the movie and he was so stunned when I filled in the blanks… I have seen a movie very similar to this one within a year ago on TV.. Can't even think of name… I agree with you. Still looking for clues!
If you have found the answer to this please post. It has been driving me crazy. I know that I have seen this movie before.
I was thinking the same thing for like 2 days after watching it and couldn't remember…then it hit me. It was the Lazarus Project with Paul Walker. He thinks he's an employee of the insane asylum, but in the end he's just a patient there. Same type of delusions as DiCaprio's character has throughout the film. Hope this is the one you were thinking of!
One morning Martin Scorses woke up feeling good about himself, and his proclaimed career as a director. He felt as if his life's work was truely complete. He was, afterall, recieving several lifetime achievement awards from one one film association or another.
He stepped outside his home to get the morning paper, whistling to himself. But as he looked up, paper in hand, he saw his neighbor pulling into his driveway in a brand new Bentley that looked as though it must have cost upward of a quarter of a million dollars. Scorses looked over the car enviously, and he began to seethe. His hands began to tighten, so much so that the paper wrinkled in his palm.
" I must have one," He thought.
He stomped into the house. His brain fixed on how he would get one.
"I need money…FAST… I must have a sure-fire hit immediately." He picked up his IPhone, and placed a call to Leonardo Dicaprio.
"Hello"?
"Leo, It's Martin, I want a new Bentley, we need to make a new movie."
"You got a script for me?" Leo asked.
Scorses scoufed, "Script? You could read the phonebook out loud, and it would make money as long as I was directing you doing it."
Dicaprio laughed, "Well that's true. Just find some book we can adapt. That'll be the quickest way towards that new car smell you're dreaming of."
"Great idea," says Scorses, "I'll look into it. Stupid Americans, it's not like they read anyways. They'll never even know."
I imagine this must have been how the movie "Shutter Island" came into being. I love Scorses, and I love Dicaprio, and I was psyched to go and see this movie when I found out they were working together again. But the plot was so F**king trite, and competely predictable, that I can't believe that those two put their names on that piece of junk for no other reason then the scene I described above.
After watching the movie FINALLY this weekend I sat there in stunned silence just blankly staring at the screen while music was playing, yet distant in the background and as the credits rolled I contemplated on how the heck this movie had to have come about. Here it is Monday and since Sat. it has been eating at me. (I told people I saw it and couldn't give a straight answer as to if I enjoied it or not) but now reading this It Makes Sense!!! So (laughing to myself, because I read this 3 times) thank you for the closure!! Now back to the work week! :)
Watched it over the weekend. I loved it! Yes I do agree it was an easy plot to figure out through the movie, but that was almost ruined by just watching the trailers. I was still on the edge of my seat waiting to see how exactly the movie will end. Great ending in my mind, I still had many questions about what "Andrew Laides" was thinking on the steps. And noticed how he did not reply to "Chuck" when he called out Teddy….My personal favorite from Leonardo DiCaprio hands down.
I am on this site too hoping for answers..saw this movie last night and it is an exact plot as a movie I saw a couple of years ago. It is driving me crazy….anybody know of a VERY similar movie?
yep ive seen a similar movie 2…there wasnt ny island or anything but at the end of the movieu get to know that the lead who's the good guy is actually just a delusion created by a criminal pscho in asylum…i liked it then actually…i thing the good guy ws played by John Cusack…i think it was Identity
I think this is a fantastic movie – the mood, the cinematography, the score and the acting and especially the incidental characters. (Patricia Clarkson was one of the highlights.) I will be seeing this again.
This movie struck my friend and I as an homage to Hitchcock. The mood and even some of the shots reminded us of Vertigo, North By Northwest and Psycho. I think with repeated viewings even more Hitchcock connections can be made.
Saw it last night. Loved every minute of it. My only gripe was that they mismarketed it. Otherwise i absolutley loved it.
Just got back from seeing this and really enjoyed it.. but one thing that bugged me all the way through was fact none of the background of shots looked real and were blurred (looking out to sea form the cliffs, on the boat at the start where it looked so fake it was blatantly annoying). There were also so many scenes were people were out of focus or the picture didn't have depth. Was this done intentionally? Been searching net for other mentions of it but cant find any comment. Wondering whether the was an issue at the screening/projector(!). For lots of scenes t felt like was watching a cam release.
i really liked this movie and it sickended me that i was in a theatre full of stupid kids who wouldn't shut up for 2 1/2 hours and when they walked I overheard talking amongst themselves about how awful they thought this movie was when they wouldn't know a great film if it hit them in the face
I LOVED the music
The Lazarus Project is the other movie, this movie made me think about… Same kind of ending plot… It bugged me since the middle of watching it, and through websearch, I finally found the name… I'm not crazy after all.
THANK YOU. My family and I have been driving ourselves crazy trying to remember which movie this was. That's the one.
This is weird.
I just saw the film and like others, I felt a strong sense of deja vu. I was sure that this was a remake. Two detectives investigating a missing patient in a isolated mental institution. The leading role starts to feel sick and he sees things, a sinister doctor give him pills, are they causing the hallucinations? In my deja vu, the other detective (Chuck) turned to be imaginary, I think. This is not the plot in Lazarus Project nor in Identity.
Perhaps a blip of The Matrix or will we start making puree hills in the shape of Devil´s Tower?
Glad to know I'm not the only one with a sense of deja vu. While I was watching, I thought, "If the warden's car gets blown up, that's it," and sure enough, there it was. Now, if I could just remember the movie's name, I could convince my wife…
OMG! Thank you for confirming I am not the only one obsessing over the memory of seeing this film before. It was definitely not the Lazarus Project. The film I remember seeing was EXACTLY the same plot. I anticipated every step as I watched Shutter Island and was so surprised to hear that it was based on a recent book by Denise LaHane. The film I saw was in black and white and had a 50's 60's feel to it as others have said. I will keep searching. Good luck!
I too thought throughout the movie as though I had seen exactly that movie before somewhere. From reading the internet it seems it was supposed to be realeased in October 2009 but got pushed back to Feb 2010 for different reasons. I thought I might have seen it on a friend's Dish Network PPV type channel sometime in 2009. I don't think he was paying for the Dish Network channels and got channels he wasn't supposed to. Anyone else having the deja vu about seeing it think they might have seen it on Dish Network? Seems there is definitely something to this deja vu thing.
OMG!!!! I said the same thing to my husband as we watched this movie. I know I saw a movie exactly like this movie. I think it was an older movie but it had the same story line.
Brad, to answer your question:
"How the film will play to someone that isn't already in the know"
I had never read the book, heard about the book, or was familiar with any of the story and subsequent twist.
I saw the twist coming a mile away from more or less the middle of the film onwards, the story is completely predictable. So, I think Scorcese isn't trying to surprise us. We as a modern audience have been exposed to all the weird plot twists imaginable, so there's no point in going down that road. I think he's trying to make us FEEL, feel the sadness the despair and the loss, at the same time he showers us in sublime pace and cinematography, in that sense I find Shutter Island to be excellent in what it tries to accomplish.
It's all in the intention.
I loved shutter island but it is a complete rip-off of Fight Club. Both film's were first novel's but fight club was written in 1996 while shutter island was written in 2003.
bad news!!! I saw a movie about a month ago ıt was older than shutter island and( this is the bad new) it wasn't lazarus project. but it was the same as tis movie only character was not a man(L. dicaprio it was a woman. but i can't remember it name all day i looked for it but can't find. I'm about to loose my mind:s
abik, The Others??
nope:s
and… ya'll know what movie it was before..??
I just watched lazarus project, and while there are similarities, the outcome is ENTIRELY different. Shutter, the main character is nucking futs. Lazarus, main character is being manipulated and lied to. Its like shutter with ANOTHER twist. Not a bad movie for netflix streaming.