Film Review – Shutter Island

Scorsese fans look away now. Even with some great central performances, his latest collaboration with Leonardo DiCaprio fails to match up to his films of old. And it’s as predictable as England’s World Cup performance.

Set in 1954, DiCaprio is Teddy Daniels, a U.S. Marshall sent to Shutter Island, a remote hospital for the criminally insane where a dangerous patient has gone missing. He travels there with his new partner, Chuck (Mark Ruffalo), and maybe it’s that sea air, but something smells fishy.

This could be one for Alfred Hitchcock fans, with some dramatic techniques synonymous with the legendary director being employed by Scorsese to create suspense throughout the film. With banging doors, thunderstorms and ominous noises, it is almost Shakespearean as well as Hitchcockian. In fact, the weather plays a huge part in this film; as part of the story, but also as a gauge for the tone of the film.

The suspense builds as the film progresses and this is maintained in part by the performance of Sir Ben Kingsley as Dr. John Cawley. His very mysterious and intriguing turn as the head psychiatrist is what keeps us guessing as to the true circumstances on the island. Also adding to the mystery are the strange and disturbing dreams that Teddy has about his wife Dolores, played by Michelle Williams.

However, the main issue with this film is the fact that the inevitable twist becomes all too foreseeable, from far too early on. Having said that, the several plot issues with this film are of course directly related to the somewhat poor source material - the film is based on the 2003 novel of the same name by Dennis Lehane and the whole storyline struck me as confused and was full of gaping holes. By the climax, it becomes slightly nonsensical.

On the other hand, it’s not unreasonable to say that this is possibly DiCaprio’s best performance since he first teamed up with Scorsese in Gangs of New York. I always found him to be unconvincing in the tough guy roles like that in The Departed, but this character strikes the correct balance between sensitivity and brooding masculinity, in my opinion. He plays the role with a sense of inner torment and with a certain moodiness, the reasons for which are revealed to us as the film progresses. Ruffalo is solid in the supporting role and as mentioned, Kingsley does add some juice to the film which, without him, would be pretty dull and even more predictable. That being said, it does keep you watching and the two hours plus running time sails by comfortably.

So Raging Bull or Casino it ain’t, but you’ll want to watch until the end, even if you have already figured out what is going to happen.

Aaron Devine