Thursday, April 15, 2010
Shutter Island- Review
Shutter Island. Wow, what can I say about this movie. This is probably the first review I think I have ever written where I am typing literally right after I saw it. I have had no time to really let it sink in, this is just my opinion and my reaction to what I have just seen and i'll tell you it is a whole cluster of mixed emotions.
The film is directed by the great, Martin Scorsese. Going into this movie I tried to place my finger on what everyone always says is amazing about Scorsese. What is his signature style? He basically always makes films about misfits, the mafia, or extremely troubled individuals. Scorsese, in a nutshell, is a master at crafting films around characters. He loves his characters and makes them come alive because he directs actors so well. This is probably because he seems to have a muse (Harvey Keitel, Robert De'Niro, Leonardo Dicaprio) and work with him for so many movies that they meld together and create genius after understanding each others style and influence so well. This is at least what I get out of him. I feel Travis Bickle from Scorsese's Taxi Driver could be one of the greatest character piece's of all time. The film followed that one man until you felt so connected to him and then it yanked you around so you cared about every dilema and dark place he fell into.
Now who is the main character of Shutter Island you may ask? Teddy Daniels, played by Dicaprio in his fourth film with Scorsese, is a duly appointed federal marshall assigned to check out a missing person on Shutter Island with his partner Chuck, played by Mark Ruffalo. The movie follows the two characters through the island, seeing the inner workings of the institution and suddenly feel the paranoia of their situation. They feel as though the doctors are against them and that there are cracks in the organization, and suddenly they are no longer safe on this island.
Now all I kept hearing about was how crazy the ending of this movie was. This film came out February 19th and since the opening weekend all my friends have said is "the ending is nuts!" and "the ending is trippy!". I will not spoil anything about this films story but let's just say, like the characters, just when you think you are safe in the story, it will flip you on your side. But the problem is I have seen this ending before in many other films. I felt I was being betrayed and was ready to hate the film and how crazy they wanted to delve because compared to other films of the past ten years, the twist seemed almost ordinary. But Dicaprio is truly in a one-man show here, carrying this film and making it un-ordinary. I would recommend this in a second just because when the twist rolls around, you feel for Dicaprio and his baby-face of hurt and worry. You begin feeling all the troubles around him and his world turn upside down. He is one special kind of an actor.
Scorsese has his usual rack-focus shots, slow-motion actions, and beautiful details that one could call his "trademark". To go back to the beginning of my review, these and his characters are his "style" and any Scorsese fan should see this film for that alone. In my humble opinion, I do not necessarily agree that he will be remembered centuries from now as the "Picasso of film" as Dicaprio stated at the Golden Globes last year (paraphrasing naturally). But he is a film-maker to be remembered and this is a film to be seen. I give it 3 out of 4 stars for a long strange trip I was put on that, come to think of it, was well worth the wait.
Sidenote: I felt this film was heavily influenced by old Alfred Hitchcock films. The perfectly placed piano notes, the dream sequences, the over head shots throwing in two actions at once. It all screamed films like Psycho and Vertigo and I applaud Scorsese for utilizing Hitchcock's techniques, if that was what he was going for.
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I totally agree with the Hitchcock-ian influence. I kept thinking of him while watching Shutter Island. I agree the if Dicaprio was not in this film, it probably would have been just average. But yet again I was pleasantly surprised with his performance. What's your favorite Scorsese film?
ReplyDeleteI felt that when the "twist" occured, Scorsese did a great job of making the audience feel the same way Dicaprio was feeling at the time, if you catch my drift....
I do indeed catch your drift! I felt that way as well, I was almost ready to not enjoy the film anymore until the flashback after the big reveal. That was just crazy and definitely well done. I'd say my favorite Scorsese film is Taxi Driver by far, though I love all his other films for various reasons. What's your favorite?
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