To the lighthouse

Rating: 6/10 (25 July 2010)

Not quite sure what genre this piece of psychodrama schlock from Martin Scorces belongs too, but it's an interesting piece, straining perhaps after the heights of say Hitchcock's "Spellbound" or Clouzot's "Les Diabolique", but falling a little bit marooned on its own shore by the time we reach the conclusion.
For one thing it's too long and frequently disappears up its own backside in its clever-clever exposition, plus, I guessed the "twist" very early on in the piece. Also Leo DiCaprio is no Gregory Peck and for me never really engaged my sympathy or even general interest as Scorcese explores the canyons of his mind.
The symbolism throughout is a little heavy - handed too, the bleak, isolated Shutter Island itself akin to DiCaprio's tortured mind-scape and the lighthouse as his shining way-out, although I suspect Mr Scorcese doesn't really want us to get too metaphysical here. If anything it comes off best as a homage to that strain of movie psycho-horror usually peopled with Vincent Price or possibly the comic pulp fiction of the same era.
I enjoyed it and applaud the director's left-field excursion away from the mainstream - interestingly the last time he ventured near this territory was in the unashamedly populous "Cape Fear". I got into it more once I realised Scorcese was presenting entertainment over art, but felt it could have been drawn tighter together into a more coherent and exciting whole.