Martin Scorsese’s phantasmagorical 'Shutter Island'

By Joyce Glasser - 15/03/2010

 What Dennis Lehane’s novels Mystic River and Shutter Island have in common, is a title that connotes a body of water in or around Boston, Massachusetts; a detective assigned to case that forces him to confront his disturbing past; a group of characters with thick Boston accents and two Oscar- winning directors over 65 who have turned both novels into Hollywood films. 

 

Nothing, however, about Clint Eastwood’s Oscar winning Mystic River could prepare you for the singular mind and body experience that is Martin Scorsese’s phantasmagorical Shutter Island. 

 

It is 1954.  US Marshal Teddy Daniels (Leonardo DiCaprio), a fidgeting, chain smoking, World War II veteran, is, somewhat symbolically, first seen on the deck of a ferry emerging from thick fog. The sight before him is a strange island with gothic, red brick buildings and armed guards guarding the dock. The boat’s captain ominously informs his two passengers that the ferry dock is the only way onto or off of the island.  Welcome to Ashcliffe Hospital for the Criminal Insane.  The emphatic music produced by Robbie Robertson (Scorsese directed The Last Waltz, a documentary about Robbie Robertson and The Band’s famous Thanksgiving concert 34 years ago), echoes the unsettling setting. 

 

Daniels is accompanied by Chuck Aule (Mark Ruffalo), an affable Marshal curious only for having been brought in all the way from Seattle for this four day assignment. One of the first things Aule and the audience learn about Daniels is that his wife, Dolores (Michelle Williams), died in a fire in 1952.  Troubled dreams – summoned up in some of Scorsese’s most astonishing filmmaking – still haunt him.  Officially, Daniels has come to Shutter Island to investigate the mysterious escape of Rachel Solando (Emily Mortimer), an allegedly dangerous patient who drowned her three children.

 

Unofficially, Daniels has some personal searching to do and a few other characters also have their own agendas.  A force 5 hurricane doesn’t help Daniels’ investigations which are further hampered by the obstructive Dr John Cawley (Ben Kingsley) and his former Nazi surgical specialist, Dr. Naehring (80-year- old Max Von Sydow).

 

Enough about this film seems familiar to allow Scorsese’s magic to make it all feel a bit distorted.  A film historian as well as director, Scorsese can beat Quentin Tarantino at his game without really playing it.  Scorsese himself admits to the influences, which include Preminger’s Laura, Fuller’s Shock Corridor, and even the German expressionist film, The Cabinet of Dr Caligari.  But as the film is set at the height of the cold war, and a conspiracy theory involving GIs and mind-altering drugs and medical procedures lies at the heart of the intrigue, The Manchurian Candidate springs to mind as well.

 

Laeta Kalogridis’s (Night Watch, Alexander) clever and enlightening adaptation is a mix of gothic horror, psychological thrillers, B movies and film noir. The last time Scorsese directed anything remotely like it – with mental illness, a violent storm, boats in foggy seas and a nail biting race against time – was his remake of Cape Fear, nearly 20 years ago.  What Kalogridis and Scorsese add to the mix is a carefully researched historic context and something profoundly moving about a man’s struggle to make sense of a past that is not his doing. In this, Scorsese is aided by a thirty-five-year collaboration with his 70-year-old editor, Thelma Shoonmaker, and fifteen-year collaboration with cinematographer Robert Richardson, who won an Oscar for Scorsese’s The Aviator.

 

Daniels is haunted by his participation in the liberation of Dachau concentration camp.  His guilt at not being able to save the mounds of bodies he witnessed is compounded by his guilt about his needy wife.  Shutter Island goes where few films have gone before, asking how a normal, responsible, person can deal with all that pain if he can’t deny it.  DiCaprio, who is to Scorsese what Matt Damon is to Paul Greengrass (their latest collaboration, Green Zone, is also out this weekend) has, after too many misses, found a role that suits him and stretches him as an actor. 

 

The film is not perfect. The strong Boston accent fails DiCaprio and others most of the time, while Ben Kingsley, who has never given a bad performance, is oddly bland and unconvincing here. The script wisely plays down the importance of Rachel Solando’s Da Vinci style word/number code, but should have eliminated it altogether. The marvellous contrast between the personalities of the two detectives is not as sharp as it is the novel and needs to be.  These shortcomings barely dent a film that pulls you into its world better than 3D and holds up under the close scrutiny of a recommended second viewing.