In Defense of Shutter Island

Rating: 10/10 (23 February 2010)

Many critics have ripped on Shutter Island, calling the acting bad and criticizing the dialogue. I read so many bad reviews of Shutter Island that I almost didn't even want to watch it. After I watched it, I had to watch it again a few days later. Shutter Island is a completely brilliant film. There is not a single frame wasted. Scorsese completely plays with his audience's minds with this tribute to the noir genre, at times making DiCaprio look like Marlon Brando, at other times using colors and lighting to inspire a Hitchcockian sense of deja vu. After watching Shutter Island I had to wonder what movie the critics watched, and if they had even bothered to finish watching it to the end.
The only way I can defend this movie from the critics who are bashing it is to include some spoilers here, so if you don't want anything given away, stop reading this right now. The ending of this movie explains it all. The reason some of the acting is intentionally bad is because everyone in this movie is acting out an elaborate game of role playing. The reason some of the dialogue doesn't make sense is because practically everything that is said has two meanings, the meaning interpreted by "The Marshal" while he is living out his complex hallucination, and the real meaning that isn't revealed until the mystery is solved, a meaning that you probably won't entirely grasp until a second viewing of this film. Upon a second viewing, multiple layers of subtleties are revealed and everything makes perfect sense. Everyone's gestures and pauses and eye movements are revealed to be not bad acting but the brilliantly portrayed behavior of those who are "in on it." This one is right up there with great movies such as Taxi Driver or The Unforgiven. It is simply an example of superb film making.