Today's movie was another film based on a Dennis Lehane novel, Shutter Island, directed by Marin Scorsese and starring Leonardo DiCaprio. The film is a mystery thriller about the disappearance of a criminaly insane mental patient and the U.S. Marshall sent to help find her.
When this movie came out I avoided all the press and buzz about it because I did not want to be surprised by a "spoiler" revelation. I knew that the film would have a twist and I wanted to go into the film not knowing what it was. I still remember watching The Sixth Sense and as the story unfolded have a sudden understanding of what was going on.
The movie takes place in 1954. DiCaprio is Edward "Teddy" Daniels a U.S. Marshall assigned to investigate an escaped mental hospital patient. The hospital is located on the site of an old civil war fort, on a remote island in Boston harbour. Everything about the island is foreboding, and as Teddy investigates he learns that there are secrets being kept on the island.
I liked Leonardo DiCaprio much better in this film than I did in Inception. He has the world weary look of a young man who went to war and came back old. He has seen things that no human being should see when his platoon liberated a concentration camp, and he carries what he saw in his eyes. He has none of the boyish swagger I find so annoying. He is supported by an outstanding cast that includes Ben Kingsley, Max Von Sydow, Mark Ruffalo, Michelle Williams, Ted Levine, Emily Mortimer, Patricia Clarkson, Jackie Earle Haley and John Carroll Lynch.
Scorsese directs with a firm hand and creates a palatable atmosphere of doom and despair. For the most part the CGI effects serve the film well, though there were a few times I realized what I was looking at was computer imaging and that ruined the film a bit for me. I also felt at a running time of 137 minutes the film was too long for a thriller and needed to be tightened up a bit.
Scorsese references many films, especially the works of Alfred Hitchcock, and like so many of Hitchcock's film if you want to know what the movie is about look in the shadows. But be careful of what you find there. You may not like it.
At The Movie House rating *** stars
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