Sometimes it’s about the company you keep. And it’s saying something that right before our screening of “Shutter Island,” Martin Scorsese’s long-delayed and longer-still-anticipated period thriller, Tony Timpone, editor of Fangoria Magazine, sat down in front of us. Because, when you get right down to it, for all its dreamy fantasy sequences, metaphysic mysteries and curlicue conspiracy theories, “Shutter Island” is Scorsese at his most lovingly genre-obsessed. It’s basically a balls-to-the-walls horror movie, made by a master filmmaker and historian (who also has a lifetime subscription to Fangoria Magazine). Ok, it’s a psychological thriller too, but it does have it’s Kubrick-ian horror tones as well.
The basic story of “Shutter Island” should be familiar to everyone, either because they’ve read the Dennis Lehane novel (written in-between the already-adapted “Gone Baby Gone” and “Mystic River”) or seen the many theatrical trailers, which feel like they have been playing nonstop for the past eighteen months. (“Shutter Island” was originally due in theaters in October 9th, 2009.) Leonardo DiCaprio, in his fourth outing with Scorsese, plays U.S. Marshal Teddy Daniels who arrives with his new partner Chuck Aule (Mark Ruffalo) to the eerie Shutter Island to investigate an even eerier mystery. Shutter Island is a fortress-like home for the criminally insane that uses cutting edge therapy at a time when most doctors were locking up patients or giving them lobotomies. It’s here that they’ve come to find escaped patient and multiple murderer Rachel Solando (Emily Mortimer).
From the get-go things are strange. Daniels is plagued by increasingly severe headaches that allow Scorsese to indulge in some vividly rendered World War II flashbacks (Daniels was part of the squad that liberated Dachau). As Daniels and Aule dig deeper into the woman’s disappearance, and a possible conspiratorial connection with the facility’s staff (led by a charmingly menacing Sir Ben Kingsley as the chief physician with Max von Sydow, Ted Levine and “Zodiac” character actor John Carroll Lynch as higher-ups), things become increasingly nightmarish and bizarre. And as things get stranger, Scorsese pumps up the volume, turning the institution into a carnival spook-house draped with visuals that call to mind “Shock Corridor,” “The Innocents,” and “Don’t Look Now.” It’s clear from the offset that Scorsese is having fun referencing his favorite genre pictures while trying to add to the canon. In other words — just go with it. Just like in a theme park ride, put your hands up, don’t be afraid to scream, there will be another big loop just around the corner.
As anyone who has seen the multiple trailers or has even a passing knowledge of “The Twilight Zone” can tell you, the movie has a pretty bold (and pretty obvious) twist that threatens to derail the entire movie. But what Scorsese and his screenwriters Laeta Kalogridis and an un-credited Steven Knight understand is so important that the twist can’t be robbed of emotional resonance. It can’t be some hollow, M. Night Shymalan-ian “gotcha!” kind of thing. You have to feel it. So after that moment, there’s a sequence that is absolutely devastating and really enriches the entire movie, causing it to come alive with all the simmering themes of redemption, guilt, and punishment. In the wrong hands it could have been a goofy “aliens are allergic to water” moment but here it floors you.
Part of the reason the movie works so well is the conviction of the actors involved. DiCaprio, his face a roadmap of pain and personal torment, gives off just the right of nervous, edgy energy while acting like a man in pursuit of real truth. Ruffalo, one of the finest and most underrated actors working today, does equally great work in a far less showy role. And all the minor performances, from Michelle Williams as Daniels’ wife, Jackie Earle Haley as Daniels’ inside man, and Elias Koteas as a murderous arsonist to all the major heavies (Ted Levine was a particular treat as the warden and Kingsley is a dream), strike the right chord between severe gravity and Saturday night matinee.
Technically, too, the movie is unparalleled. The movie is set in 1954 and awash in period detail. Between Dante Ferretti’s peerless production design and sets, Robert Richardson’s gorgeous cinematography (full of his usual halos of light) and the interesting selection of avante garde classical music musical cues and old school pop songs, the whole thing is a luscious visual tour de force. Rarely do you want to stay in a movie set in a mental institution, but you can picture yourself walking through the byzantine corridors all night long, if only to wait for the next thing to come out and spook you with its surreal strangeness.
Is it a “major” Scorsese picture? Probably not. It’s even more grubbily grindhouse than his Best Picture winner “The Departed.” But that’s also not giving it enough credit, since it is a more artful, cerebral, and emotionally captivating movie than that film. The journey may be slightly too long (at 148 minutes it could stand to use a trim) and weird but it’s worth it. Scorsese managed to synthesize a million genre influences into a keenly aware and captivating thriller. It may be a little “too much” for people, but we think it’s just right. [A-]
