Shutter Island

The best way to enjoy Shutter Island is to go in without expectations. Anyone looking for the DiCaprio/Scorsese power-punch we got in The Departed is bound to feel a little let down. Anyone expecting the kind of supernatural thriller that the trailer suggests it will be is also bound to leave somewhat unfulfilled. Anyone looking to enjoy a fairly unsettling, moderately affective thriller is more likely to get what they came for.

At first, Shutter Island kind of sucks. We begin with U.S. Marshalls Teddy Daniels (Leonardo DiCaprio) and Chuck Aule (Mark Ruffalo) on a boat, heading toward the titular island, which houses a "Mental Hospital For The Criminally Insane." I include the quotation marks because this phrase is used a countless number of times, as though there is risk of us forgetting where this movie is taking place. While at sea, the pair discuss Teddy's life leading up to this investigation. I learned a new phrase today that best describes this scene. It's called an "exposition dump," an "information dump," or, more brutally, an "idiot lecture." These phrases describe when a ton of information is given to the viewer all at once. Unfortunately, in Teddy's case, it creates an uncomfortably false introduction to his character. He simply hands us all of the information that we need, through forced-sounding dialogue, so that we can get a starting point for his character. In light of the movie's "big" twist (and we're getting to that next), it's a little more forgivable, but those first five or ten minutes are fairly insufferable.

Now, about the twist. It turns out that Shutter Island is actually the Lost island. Just kidding. Don't worry, I won't tell you what it is, but it does seem to be the big talk of the movie. Not since The Sixth Sense has there been such a buzz about a movie's ending. The difference, and there is one, between twists like The Sixth Sense and Fight Club, and this movie is that those endings seemed to come out of nowhere. Even if someone had an inkling that something wasn't quite lining up, these twists caught us by surprise. Shutter Island, on the other hand, makes it clear from very near the beginning that we were going to get fucked around. With a movie set in a mental institution (for the criminally insane), where the protagonist is having strange dreams, and a closer connection to the island that we originally realized, it's bound to happen that some kind of big reveal is on its way. The "twist" itself, while not unexpected, does offer a payoff for the anticipation. What it lacks in surprise, it makes up for in its emotionally-charged reveal.

What is most frustrating about Shutter Island is how many of the film's "faults" can be attributed to the circumstances surrounding the ending. Of course Teddy has his big exposition spiel on the boat at the beginning. Of course the acting appears to be somewhat hollow. The question is whether this is due to an incredibly layered and well-planned effort on Scorsese and company's part, or whether the movie is just made vaguely unsettling, with a focus on simply getting to the ending. I'm not prepared to say that the movie takes this cop-out latter road, but most of its two and a half hours does feel like it's waiting to end up somewhere. You can only take so much creepy ambiguity before you just want to fast forward and find out what the hell is going on.

Plot aside, the movie is quite successful at creating some beautifully disturbing images. From Teddy's wife collapsing into a pile of ash in his arms during one dream sequence, to the brutality of his experiences invading a concentration camp during the war, the film is a dark investigation into the power and capabilities of the human mind.

Rating: 3.25 stars