Jim3k
02-20-2010, 02:41 AM
The first thing to say about Shutter Island is that its advertising campaign is really misleading. I thought it was going to be a variation of the haunted house theme – evil and/or haunted mental hospital. Sort of like Disney’s haunted house where sudden scares come from every nook and cranny.
Instead, it is a chip off the 1960’s-1970’s psychological movies. Rather than attempting to terrify you at every turn, this movie is a study of a broken mind, at least to the extent that psychoses were understood in the early 1950’s. Films such as The Collector, Nightmare, David and Lisa, Three Faces of Eve and Blowup all come to mind, not because of plot similarity, but because of the psychiatric issues faced by persons traumatized to psychotic/schizoid episodes and how they handle them.
I’ve almost said too much, since much of what I want to cover would result in spoilers. Let me just say that Shutter Island is a darn good movie, dark to be sure, but really well crafted by director Martin Scorsese. It is a wonderful tribute to the film noire library – multi-leveled, shadows for all kinds of moods, rats, a foreboding musical soundtrack, a storm, and dream-created precipitation connected to an unspeakable crime committed by a character who has warned that insects are in her brain.
The acting is outstanding. The DeCaprio character is war-damaged and clearly on the edge. He handles it superbly. I think I have seen here the growth of DeCaprio from a damn good leading man into one who can control an entire movie, simply by evocation. He is strong – fearfully so, yet frightened, too; he is confused by circumstances; he is vengeful, yet non-vengeful, his killing days from combat are over. He has become one helluva an actor.
And the rest of cast: Whoa…Mark Ruffalo’s ambivalence, Ben Kingsley’s earnest yet suspect behavior, and Max von Sydow’s patented darkness are all very powerful. There are some cameos – ghosts even – such as Patricia Clarkson and some of the patients. Finally, I do not wish to omit a real ghost, Michelle Williams. True, she is the product of a disturbed mind, but very real.
This is a very good, dark movie. Film noire and psychological movie fans will love it.
Caveats: language, brief male frontal nudity.
Instead, it is a chip off the 1960’s-1970’s psychological movies. Rather than attempting to terrify you at every turn, this movie is a study of a broken mind, at least to the extent that psychoses were understood in the early 1950’s. Films such as The Collector, Nightmare, David and Lisa, Three Faces of Eve and Blowup all come to mind, not because of plot similarity, but because of the psychiatric issues faced by persons traumatized to psychotic/schizoid episodes and how they handle them.
I’ve almost said too much, since much of what I want to cover would result in spoilers. Let me just say that Shutter Island is a darn good movie, dark to be sure, but really well crafted by director Martin Scorsese. It is a wonderful tribute to the film noire library – multi-leveled, shadows for all kinds of moods, rats, a foreboding musical soundtrack, a storm, and dream-created precipitation connected to an unspeakable crime committed by a character who has warned that insects are in her brain.
The acting is outstanding. The DeCaprio character is war-damaged and clearly on the edge. He handles it superbly. I think I have seen here the growth of DeCaprio from a damn good leading man into one who can control an entire movie, simply by evocation. He is strong – fearfully so, yet frightened, too; he is confused by circumstances; he is vengeful, yet non-vengeful, his killing days from combat are over. He has become one helluva an actor.
And the rest of cast: Whoa…Mark Ruffalo’s ambivalence, Ben Kingsley’s earnest yet suspect behavior, and Max von Sydow’s patented darkness are all very powerful. There are some cameos – ghosts even – such as Patricia Clarkson and some of the patients. Finally, I do not wish to omit a real ghost, Michelle Williams. True, she is the product of a disturbed mind, but very real.
This is a very good, dark movie. Film noire and psychological movie fans will love it.
Caveats: language, brief male frontal nudity.