Marty needs a new editor

Rating: 7/10 (20 February 2010)

Well, after months and months of waiting, Shutter Island was finally released this weekend. I've been dying to see this movie, I love Martin Scorsese and Leonardo DiCaprio. These two together just equal gold and you are always sure to have a guaranteed good time at the movie theater. But maybe it's not always a guarantee; unfortunately, Shutter Island was a huge disappointment to me. The weird thing is, it's over something silly but important, the editing. We have fantastic actors, a great story, awesome direction and a spooky atmosphere. But the problem is, the movie does run a bit long, being at almost two and a half hours, it was exhausting to get through the movie. The beginning is so slow paced that it looses track of it's characters and by the time for it's exciting conclusion, I just felt a bit empty.
It's 1954, and up-and-coming U.S. marshal Teddy Daniels is assigned to investigate the disappearance of a patient from Shutter Island's Ashecliffe Hospital. He'd been gunning for an assignment on the island for reasons of his own -- but before long he wonders whether he hasn't been brought there as part of a twisted plot by hospital doctors whose radical treatments range from unethical to illegal to downright sinister. Teddy's code-breaking skills soon provide a promising lead, but the hospital refuses him access to records he suspects would break the case wide open. As a hurricane cuts off communication with the mainland, more dangerous criminals "escape" in the confusion, and the puzzling, improbable clues proliferate, Teddy begins to doubt everything -- his memory, his partner, even his own sanity.
I feel so awful because I wanted to love this movie, I was expecting it to be my favorite film of 2010. Still Leonardo DiCaprio, Ben Kingsley and Mark Ruffalo held their own and carried the movie very well. The whole feeling of the film was extremely spooky and does have some very frightening and intense moments. I absolutely adored the ending as it's a puzzle for the audience and it lets you make up your own decision on what has happened throughout the film. The story does have some clever twists and turns that should keep you locked in the movie. But like I mentioned before, the story really did need to be cut down. I have a feeling that if the movie was more like an hour and forty-five minutes, it would have worked a lot better.
The tension just wasn't enough for me to keep interest, my friends were also a bit disappointed, they felt the same. By the time the ending and all the answers came together, they were just disinterested in the story and characters. Now, I don't mind a lengthy movie, but that comes with the exception that the makers of the film keep up with the action and whatever is needed to keep the plot going. I felt like the Nazi story that Teddy kept dreaming about could have been kept to a limit, it's constantly brought up. Also another question I had was that it seemed like Teddy seemed to favor his daughter over his other children and I don't know why; because when he finds out that his wife killed his children, he immediately rushes to his daughter vs. the sons, he also dreams more of her than the boys. The ending was also semi anti-climatic. The critics were saying that the ending makes the movie all worth it and while I agree it's a great ending, it fell flat the very last second for me. I'm thinking this movie would be better as a rental, because you have the chance to have better concentration at home with what is going on in the story. Martin and Leonardo did a good job, but the film just wasn't what I expected, but I guess we all can't be perfect, right? Just why did this have to happen with Marty and Leo? Well, here's to the next project with them, maybe it'll be better.
7/10