#230 - Shutter Island

The detectives look out over the edge of Shutter Island in Scorsese's B-moviest film, "Shutter Island".

REVIEW:

I dismissed this is as yet another disappointment from late-career Scorsese when I first saw it, and a repeated viewing has confirmed that impression for me, but I'm holding out hope that the movie might grow on me. It feels a little like Casino to me in Scorsese's canon: I'm probably always going to dislike it, but if it's on at 1 o'clock in the morning, I'm watching it. Scorsese is clearly trying to knock off a Val Lewton-style B-movie with this Dennis Lehane adaptation, and while I would love to see more A-list directors cranking out entertaining yarns, Scorsese can't help but get caught striving for more. There's a flippancy in this film, a dependence on "atmosphere" over the sake of narrative coherence, that I found off-putting and occasionally offensive (as in the glib tracking shot that pans along as dozens of Nazis are killed by American soldiers). The story becomes all the more ludicrous when the film is seen for a second time and the twist is known...it's an insult to the victims of mental disorders to attempt to pigeonhole "insanity" into such a neat cause-and-effect scheme, and it's an insult to the audience's intelligence to try to pass off the twist of the film as plausible. Leonardo DiCaprio, who usually annoys me with his straining, once again relies on the same tics he has when he goes into Serious mode: an unnecessary accent, lots of scowling, and in the later scenes, a series of blinks and twitches meant to signify that he's "cracking". I found it all pretty overbaked, but there are still a few things to admire: Patricia Clarkson's memorable one-off scene, the haunted-house style atmosphere of the island, and the film's final scene, which would have been a brilliant capper if what had preceded it was worthy. Oh well, here's to 2 a.m. rainy-night movie reruns, where Shutter Island reigns supreme.

MY RATING:

54/100

WOULD IT BE IN MY TOP 250?

Noooo. It probably wouldn't even be in my top 15 Scorsese films.

WHY IS IT IN THE IMDB TOP 250?

As I mentioned, Shutter Island does have an enduring appeal as a tough-to-turn-off insanity funhouse. Maybe a lot of people were intrigued by its plot twists and turns...I was annoyed by their schematic nature. And clearly a lot of people still felt that this was Scorsese in his old masterful form, while I couldn't help but see the uncertainty of someone who was torn between his usual exuberance and his desire to craft a creepy and moody thriller.