Far From Scorsese's Best, But Definitely Not His Worst

Rating: 8/10 (19 February 2010)

Director Martin Scorsese weaves a tale that I can't quite place words upon. Shutter Island is part drama, part thriller, part horror. It is a touch film noir, while also being a pinch trippy. Regardless as to what it truly is, the mystery of Shutter Island is one worth seeing, but perhaps not the director's best in his long pantheon of work.
On an island off the coast of Boston, engulfed in the fog and on the rim of a hurricane, there lies a mental hospital called Aschliffe. The hospital only takes the most dangerous, most mentally unstable patients. A patient has recently escaped, and no one can explain her mysterious disappearance. Two U.S. Marshalls come to the island, our hero Teddy Daniels (Leonardo DiCaprio) and his partner. But is there more going on upon the mysterious Shutter Island than meets the eye? That is what Teddy is trying to find out, while also searching for his wife's killer, who is an inmate in the institution.
This film is what one would call a mindbender, and for that Scorsese should be duly applauded. While I figured out the big twist at the end about halfway through the film, I was severely impressed at how well Scorsese painted a portrait of insanity in this film. To call this film crazy would actually be a compliment and not a detriment to its storytelling abilities. It is an insane film, making you feel as if you ventured inside a crazy man's head for 2 hours. Dream sequences, hallucinations of the ghosts of his past, Teddy is our guide through this look at sanity and its breaking point, and it is there that the film is the most stunning.
The dream sequences highlight Teddy's past, his traumatic history. The death of his wife, his time serving in World War II where he came across a graveyard of dead bodies in a Nazi concentration camp. A man with such a tragic past, it is very easy to see how he eventually snapped. Though, it is with these dream sequences that Scorsese evokes his adoration for film noir. Teddy is the quintessential film noir protagonist. He's a troubled man, haunted by his past, and he is madly in love with the elusive woman he can't have. DiCaprio is stunning as Teddy, delivering a timeless performance that at times is reminiscent of Bogart or Cagney, but he always remains true DiCaprio and makes the emotional scenes between Teddy and his deceased wife all the more believable and heartbreaking.
Martin Scorsese instituted his trademark visual flare here with the marvelous dream sequences and well done flashbacks, but as a whole the film lacked that special something to make this one of Scorsese's best. The film starts off riveting, dripping with suspense, and oozing with mystery. The latter half of the film is not as strong as the first, and it is debatable as to whether or not the ending was the right one for the film, because it kind of feels as if the story kind of just comes untied and feels incomplete rather than satisfying. Regardless, the film is a visual feast and is a cinephile's dream, and don't get me wrong, the film is entertaining and mindbending, but it does not manage to live up to the suspense, nor the mystery set up at the beginning of the film.
I give Shutter Island an 8 out of 10!