Shutter Island

In 1954, federal marshals Teddy Daniels (Leonardo DiCaprio) and Chuck Aule (Mark Ruffalo) are summoned to a mental hospital on an island off the coast of Massachusetts to search for an escaped patient. A storm leaves them stranded not long after they get there and their investigative resolve puts them at odds with Dr. Cawley (Ben Kingsley), the chief psychiatrist. Daniels suspects something sinister afoot, but is that the evidence or his trauma (dead wife and memories of liberating Dachau) talking?

Dennis Lehane’s thrilling novel is given the star treatment, as Martin Scorsese and an A-list cast team together to create a film with a very high cinematic pedigree. The results do not disappoint. It’s a faithful adaptation, beautifully rendered. “Beautiful,” however, does not always equal “pleasant” and that’s especially true in this case. There’s plenty of disturbing imagery (raving mad inmates and frozen dead concentration camp inmates are just the beginning) to go with the period clothing and the stormy solitude of the island creates a profound sense of disquiet from the moment the marshals arrive. Not since Stanley Kubrick’s adaptation of The Shining has a director been able to extract such place-based tension from the get-go.

The acting isn’t quite on par with the aesthetics, but its fine in its own right. DiCaprio delivers a gripping performance as a conflicted man who threatens to unravel under pressure. Max von Sydow adds a hint of stately menace as a smug Germanic psychiatrist, while Emily Mortimer convincingly conveys fragile instability as the missing patient, a delusional woman who supposedly drowned her own children. Kingsley is a bit understated for his own good and the Boston accents are probably too thick, but these aren’t fatal flaws.

Despite the tension and paranoia in the air, Shutter Island is not a quick-moving film. It slowly branches out, unfolding its mystery piece by sinister piece. Some will grow bored and frustrated with the deliberate pace, just as some will find its twists and turns (including a key revelation toward the end) gimmicky and predictable. These are valid criticisms, but it’s important to realize that this is a film where whatever actually happened takes a backseat to the effects that it produces on the characters and viewers alike.

As evident from the trailers, Shutter Island is not for the feint of heart. It is also not for those who demand absolute ingenuity in plotting. But for those who can live with those constraints and focus on the craftsmanship, this is as good as it gets.

8.25/10