simplistic B-movie

Rating: 5/10 (29 December 2010)

Ignore the celebrity status of Scorsese and DiCaprio and this is an otherwise simplistic B-movie. DiCaprio's acting is uneven, like his Boston accent, and Ben Kingsley seems to be going through the motions only to collect a check and get back to real drama. Like much American cinema, you could experience this movie with your eyes closed. There is nearly constant dialog, explaining everything we ought to be able to figure out on our own. The shifts in point of view, from exclusively DiCaprio's for most of the film, to omniscient near the end, only emphasize that the producers didn't trust the audience's ability to understand what was happening, even though it's neither complicated nor original. To avoid any confusion, the flashbacks and delusions are clearly labeled. A few nights before viewing this film I watched "A Prophet" ("Un Prophète"), a French film about confinement and crime. It too used delusions, but relied upon the viewer to recognize what they were, rather than simply identifying them. That film was thrilling, suspenseful, grim, in ways that "Shutter Island" did not come close to achieving.