SHUTTER ISLAND: a smart, sneaky meditation on the causes & effects of violence...

Rating: 8/10 (28 February 2010)

Scorsese is far from home off the Massachusetts coast, but he's not gone far thematically, and SHUTTER ISLAND is actually a refreshing return to self-reflection, following the amoral romp THE DEPARTED, a film full of highly-entertaining kills, with a minimum of meditation on them. In this asylum for the criminally insane, however, Marty's found himself an ideal setting for a study of the brutality that's defined his career. Is violence the ultimate logic – a gift from God himself – as one character puts it? Or is violence simply madness – and are all those who commit it, if they're not mad already, driven irreversibly mad by it? It's a potent question, and one the director addresses here with care, if not subtlety...
Though SHUTTER ISLAND is something less than perfect, its effects are lingering, the questions it raises not easily dismissed. And the conclusion drawn by this brutal funhouse of a movie, ultimately, is a disturbing one: violence can't be undone. To put faith in human recovery in the face of sadism – either global, or personal – is to play a losing game. Once the crime's committed, the case can never be truly solved.
Check out my full review (and more) at STEVENSPIELBLOG.COM ...
-Greg