A Non-Spoiler Review

When it comes to the horror/suspense/thriller genre of films, I prefer work like The Others and The Orphanage to that of Friday the Thirteenth part 47 and Freddie Kills Jason’s Mother’s Favorite German Shepherd. Give me something creepy and filled with atmosphere over slasher gore any day. I am especially a sucker for any story set in an old insane asylum. The true horror of what used to be done to people in the name of mental health care coupled with locales that, when abandoned, are as creepy as they come ratchets my interest level way up. So when I saw the trailer for Martin Scorsese’s latest film, it mattered not to me that it starred the ‘sometimes good, sometimes not-so-good’ Leonardo DiCaprio or that it was being released during the months of the year where all bad films go to die. I knew I had to see it in the theater, and Saturday morning found me doing just that.

Shutter Island is based on a novel by author Dennis Lehane and it stars the kind of ensemble cast that I am generally only used to seeing in Robert Altman films: the aforementioned DiCaprio, Mark Ruffalo, Max Von Sydow, Ben Kingsley, Emily Mortimer, Michelle Williams, Patricia Clarkson, Jackie Earle Haley, Ted Levine, Elias Koteas. I was frankly surprised that every time I turned around there was a famous face. That sort of thing does not work in every film, but I found that it worked just fine in this suspenseful, unsettling film about a U.S. Marshall in 1954 sent out to Shutter Island, home of Ashecliffe Hospital for the Criminally Insane, to investigate the disappearance of a murderous female patient. As is to be expected in this type of film, not everything can be taken at face value, a fact that is played out for the viewer through the eyes of DiCaprio’s character, Teddy Daniels.

Shutter Island succeeds, in my opinion, because it is not your standard thriller fare. Sure, these are well worn tropes and there is nothing particularly unique about the story, but the story is well told and it unfolds on the screen in a manner atypical of similar films. Here the pacing is deliberately slow, almost hypnotic, and somewhat askew. From the musical cues to the sometimes odd nuances of performance, everything is done to keep the viewer slightly off balance, to perpetuate the menace and insanity of Shutter Island without having to spell everything out. Shutter Island is a deliciously creepy locale in and of itself. The setting chose for filming is at once beautiful and terrifying in its lush isolation and decay. The islands and the buildings that occupy it are every bit as much a character in the film as any of the human players and as such it delivers a powerful performance. It is the kind of place I wouldn’t want to be caught alone in and at the same time would like nothing more than to go off exploring all by myself, if that makes any sense.

Looking over the Martin Scorsese ouevre, there is no denying that he is a talented film maker, yet there are not many of his films that I find particularly to my taste. I didn’t go into the experience wearing my Scorsese fan goggles, so it is with genuine sincerity that I give him his due for what he created. Whether a person leaving the theater loves or loathes Shutter Island, there is no denying that it is a visually arresting film. It has an exotic and rich feel. The production values alone have me itching to see the film again. Teddy Daniels’ nightmare scenes showcase some of the best digitally enhanced work I’ve seen, from an artistic standpoint.

Shutter Island is the kind of movie that will certainly divide audiences, which rings true when you look at the 67% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. I found the performances of the actors to be first rate. Despite being surprised at the number of familiar faces, I never found myself thrown out of the story when a recognizable actor/actress made an appearance. The story has some nice twists and turns, some of which you can see coming from a mile away. But that fact doesn’t take away from the engagement of the film, in fact it makes you watch more closely looking for this clue or that shred of evidence to confirm your suspicions. I saw the film with two people who had previously read the book, so it was interesting to get their perspective of the film. They both enjoyed the film very much, felt it gave a fair representation of Lehane’s work, and they saw it through different eyes than I did so their enjoyment was on a completely different level. Knowing the story now, I look forward to watching it again in the future as I know I will be watching a completely different film.

Shutter Island is a dark, suspenseful film with incredible visuals. It is a layered story that rouses suspicions and leaves you questioning your assumptions even after the film is over. While I feel pretty solid in my interpretation of events, I have read the opinions of others that also have validity and, at the risk of sounding like a broken record, make me want to go back and see the film again. Shutter Island is the perfect film for those who like cold, dark movies that creep up on you, films thick with atmosphere and foreboding, films that contain both real and imagined horror.

To quantify my movie-watching experience, I will give this a 4 out of 5 stars.

Where to Go From Here:

This may be pretty obvious, but, read the book. Joe Sherry, who inspired my Top 20 in the 2000s post, listed Lehane’s novel as one of his favorites of the decade, writing that it “is taut and filled to the brim with tension and offers surprises I couldn’t have imagined.” Heck, that is the perfect review for the film as well. I should have just saved time and copied that earlier! 🙂 I hesitate to recommend any other films or books to go with this one because each one that I have in mind reveals something about this movie that I don’t want you to know. So I’ll end this by recommending one of my favorite asylum films, Session 9. It is a contemporary story filmed in and around the abandoned Danvers State Mental Hospital in Danvers, MA. The ‘behind the scenes’ was as creepy as the film simply because of the imposing dread that the memories of this large abandoned asylum holds. To close, if you are in the Kansas City area I would recommend a trip up to the Glore Psychiatric Museum in St. Joseph, Missouri. It would be the perfect companion piece to viewing either of these films, as it reveals many of the horrific, deplorable, barbaric “treatments” given to mental health patients in the early days of psychiatric care on up to the all-too-near past. We’ve done some awful things to each other under the guise of caring for our fellow man.