Crazy Story

Rating: 5/10 (20 February 2010)

There's a certain betrayal that seems to occur between filmmaker and viewer when a psychological thriller on screen is suddenly revealed to be the madness of a character. Movies that trick an audience this way always seem to guarantee a particular anger from the audience for doing so. We only want the truth but when that truth is clouded by insanity, unless we know the rules, we resent being taken for a ride, especially in a film like Shutter Island which is ostensibly a 2-hour character study.
When movies show us reality through a madman's eyes we are bound to follow the gnarly logic of that character, and with some actors this journey can be exciting and fascinating to experience. In Shutter Island however the character is suffering under the burden of personal psychosis and the performance of Leonardo DiCaprio doesn't fully justify the parameters of the characters' mental capabilities. Additionally there is no logical mooring for the story or character and the filmmaker must resort to increasingly shocking images to hold the viewer. This is problematic because we remain outsiders through the course of the story and are never fully able to experience viscerally the characters' needs.
When we see images of a frozen mother and child at Dachau we are certain that director Martin Scorsese will use these dead bodies in a later image of shock for Teddy, and sure enough the dead come alive in a dream for the disturbed character and continue throughout the rest of the film to haunt the viewer as well.
Like Pavlov's dog, Teddy salivates at the idea of getting back at the German nation by inflicting some sort of pain on Dr. Naehring played by Max von Sydow. As striking as many of these images are, they add up to more character definition as if the film was an excuse for the actions of this investigator played by Leo DiCaprio. What we keep wanting, after a good hour into the movie, is some real exposure of injustice that's being foisted on society and watch as Teddy puts the kibosh on those responsible and make the world a happier place.
The world of Martin Scorsese is a darker place. The film is a promotional film for the advances of Psychological Treatment in the 1950s, and Scorsese's aesthetic betrays his own sense of justice, and that of the public at large. There is a concerted effort by Ben Kingsley's Dr. Cawley to voice the heart of the film that good humane treatment of mental patients leads to a better society but if that is the case then why not make the movie about him, and not about a psychotic detective.
Novelist Dennis Lehane loves mystery. His novel "Mystic River" was adapted for the screen by Clint Eastwood and achieved blockbuster status due to its powerful psychological overtones. Another one of his books, "Gone Baby Gone" was adapted and directed by Ben Affleck as a debut directorial project in 2007 to great success. Both films have a strong connection to psychological motivation and an equally strong objective correlative that defines plot as character goal-fulfillment. Shutter Island as a twisted psychological story with the metaphorical images of insane asylum and derangement are the kinds of things that work in a textual story as a novel but do not translate ideally into a film without some compensation.
Martin Scorsese likes the noir allure of the story as a detective yarn better than the possible alternative, that of a life-affirming tale about advances in psychiatry. The film utilizes all the tropes of film noir- detectives in Fedoras, shadowy hallways, suspicious doctors, mental disorder, dark foreboding stormy weather, but these elements are all supports for the fractured character of Teddy Daniels, and if we identify with him we have to feel that we are controlled by our own demons as he is driven by his demons.
The film does have moments of humor which keep us involved in the character of Teddy Daniels, as in the way DiCaprio shows us how he is affected by the warm memory and sense of loss connected with Michelle Williams' Dolores. Especially affecting is a moment late in the movie when Daniels uses his tie to create a car bomb while apologizing to his wife's' accompanying specter about the "ugly" clothing accessory she had given him.
On the TV show "Dallas" that aired from 1978 to 1991 an entire season was developed around a series of events that essentially brought an end to all of the characters and the great Ewing Empire. When toward the end of the season viewers were up in arms about the complete erosion of the bond they had developed over the years with the world of JR and all the machinations of the Texas night-time drama, the last episode revealed that the preceding events had all been a bad dream of one of the characters- this allowed the producers a "get-out-of-jail" card after being given the death sentence by their viewing public. Shutter Island has a similar effect but no renewed season to win back all those who watch disheartened as the screen fades to black.
Considering the $12-dollar price tag for movie tickets in New York, this film will look better on disc with additional commentary from the director and actors- watch it then.