This post was written by Hatchet Reporter Kathryn Beard.
In a scene from “Shutter Island,” certifiably disturbed patient George Noyce (Jackie Earle Haley) eerily issues a warning to deputy U.S. marshal Chuck Aule: “Don’t you get it? You’re a rat in a maze.” Though referencing his hospital imprisonment, Noyce could have easily been referring to us moviegoers, stuck viewing the twisted world of “Shutter Island,” the latest from cinematic veteran Martin Scorsese.
“Shutter Island,” adapted from the best-selling novel of the same name, takes place in 1954 on the barren cliffs of a Boston Harbor island. The landmass is home to Ashecliffe, a psychiatric hospital for the criminally insane. Haggard U.S. marshal Teddy Daniels (played by Leonardo Dicaprio in his least glamorous role to date) and his fresh-faced partner Aule (Mark Ruffalo) are summoned to the institution to investigate a patient’s disappearance. At Ashecliffe, all is not what it seems. Is the genuine enthusiasm from hospital director Dr. Cawley (Ben Kingsley) a façade for his evil musings? How did Rachel Solando, the missing inmate, seem to float through her cell walls? What is held in the lone lighthouse securely guarded on the cliff’s edge? Why is Daniels plagued with life-like hallucinations and nightmarish dream of his tragic past?
Scorsese and the confusion he presents does succeed in capturing the audience’s attention, and the movie could have easily played out as an entertaining detective thriller set in a creepy environment with pop-out thrills. Yet, Scorsese tries to make the movie into something much more complex, with juxtaposed themes of Cold War tensions, the treatment of the mentally ill and the legacy of the Holocaust. The latter seems to be the most unnecessary. The island setting is interrupted on numerous occasions with dream sequences from Daniels’ past, like when his World War II unit liberated a German concentration camp. The sequences are trippy recollections of dead bodies that seemingly come to life, pleading stares from skeletal victims and one disgusting instance of a dying German with half a face lying in a pool of his own blood. These scenes are clearly meant to reveal Daniels’ traumatic past and to set up the possibility of his own insanity, but they instead detract from the most interesting character in the movie: the island itself.
To accompany the jarring wartime flashbacks, Daniels is continually haunted by his deceased wife, whose death in an apartment fire may also be not what it seems. Mrs. Daniels (played by a blank-faced Michelle Williams) appears in different states throughout the film. In one scene, she and Daniels lovingly embrace as her body turns to blood then ash and then melts away. Just when you think you have finally figured out this headache of a movie, the entire plot jerks to a halt so Daniels can have another visit from a dead family member or a nightmarish vision from his past.
In playing Daniels, DiCaprio succeeds with the little material given for the role. As the movie progresses, his character is just as confused as the audience itself, and this can be seen in the furrowing of his brow and the intensity of his stares. DiCaprio’s turn as Daniels is bolstered by strong performances from supporting characters (Patricia Clarkson, Emily Mortimer and Hayley). But when these actors do finally appear, you will have already lost interest in the plot twist that is inevitably waiting just around the corner.
The film is not without some merit. The early scenes display Scorsese at his best, with near-perfect set design, lighting and cinematography. But by the time the movie concluded, I was ready for a truly outrageous M. Night Shyamalan-style ending that would somehow make up for the previous two hours of frivolous fluff. Unfortunately, I’m still waiting.
