Shutter Island is
an enormous film. A big, bold, brash bit of film that fires
on every piston from moment one and never lets up. In other
director's hands the film would overwhelm, it's enormous
moments and even bigger character beats would crash out of
control amongst the absolutely nutso story line and lush
visuals. But this isn't just your run-of-the-mill Hollywood
no-name puttering about, this is Martin Scorsese, for better
or worse, one of the great over-indulgent directors of,
well, ever. And in his aged and talented hands, the looming
excess of a film like
Shutter Island is
man-handled into a taut, horrific thriller and his best film
in years.
Review - Shutter
Island
Let's get this straight: I don't think Martin
Scorsese's recent output has been indicative whatsoever of
his career up to say, Gangs of New York.
As
he's gotten older Scorsese seems to have completely and
totally embraced the decadent filmmaking of films like
Taxi Driver and Goodfellas, indulging himself in
a way that at times goes completely out of control. Gangs
of New York and The Aviator are both Scorsese
films that suffer greatly from his love of excess. They're
bloated hulks of film that demanded less, when all Scorsese
seemed to want was more, more, more. The Departed is
a step in the right direction, but still, the excesses of
that film (can I say Jack Nicholson?) sully the film, and
whenever I think back on it all I can remember is overly
dramatic white lighting.
Shutter Island though
is a perfect combination of Scorsese's ample talent and his
love for the drastically theatrical. Allowing Scorsese to
craft a thirty-course meal of a film that leaves you
contently full, not painfully bursting at the seams. The
story of deranged inmate (Emily Mortimer) in the early 1950s
gone missing at the secrecy-shrouded, island-asylum Ashcliff
and the two U.S. Marshalls (Leonardo Dicaprio and Mark
Ruffalo) sent to find her is a small story at heart. A film
about the ghosts that haunt us both physically and mentally
and in the hands of lesser director, could've been played
small with the savage plot twists and performances toned
down to a more intimate picture. But that's not Scorsese in
any way. Instead what we get is a thriller that borders on
horror writ large by one of the geniuses of American film.
And you can see Scorsese's glee at making such a big,
entertaining film in every giant frame of Shutter
Island.
The gloves are off and Scorsese uses the freedom to turn up
the intensity of every single frame to eleven.
Dicaprio's character, Teddy Daniels, is a man wracked by
grief, grief for the wife he lost to a fire and to the
terrible things he did during the war, and it plagues him
throughout the film in a series of dreams and hallucinations
that are absolutely beautiful to behold. The film is long,
by today's standards, and it feels long, but in a
rather glorious way. Each of the dream sequences isn't
a hectic burst of flashy-editing, they are carefully
crafted, Hitchcockian-paced pieces of art, stunning in their
visual prowess. They're big and they're beautiful, but
their length feels necessary, as does everything in the
film. The small, short cuts of doors opening; the booming
bassoon that shakes your seat; the beams of white light that
illuminate the stark rooms of the asylum - all of them are
parts of this gloriously woven tapestry.
Even the emotions on display in the film are enormous.
Teddy Daniels is a man on the verge of breakdown, and his
bursts of anger and sadness and his general gritty attitude
are captured perfectly by Dicaprio. I am wont to say that
this is the best performance we've seen so far by the
still-young actor. He wears the sadness, the paranoia, the
fear that all is not right in the state of Ashcliff so
convincingly, you'd think he'd experienced Dachau and the
travesties that occurred there. This film, in terms of
acting, could've been justly declared a melodrama, and
though yes, it does linger on the edges, the fine cast
Scorsese presides over here, reign it in masterfully.
Anyway, this is a thick (but very entertaining) film that's
hard to fully explain, so just do yourself a favor and check
it out this weekend. I think you'll agree that it's a
great effort from Scorsese and all involved.
Noah Sanders is the blog/news editor at Light In The
Attic and a contributor at Sound On The Sound and
the KEXP blog. He also has his own
Criterion-based film site, Criterion Quest.
If you'd like to contact Noah in regards to his
writings here at Side One: Track One then please do
so
here.
- Noah Sanders
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