Shutter Island Review
“Who knew that the Harbor Islands had cliffs? And not just cliffs but giant bluffs?”
Any time a movie is pushed back from a release date, it brings me cause for concern. It’s like sending a message to the viewers, that someone thought it was ready and the people in charge ultimately of that decision, disagreed. Usually, those people are not directors. I only see a room full of people making creative decisions that do nothing but hurt the intended message and overall quality of a film. So imagine my surprise to see Martin Scorsese’s latest movie, Shutter Island, fall victim to my paranoid scenario. It was written off as a tactic to garner “Oscar buzz”. But any movie fan saw that by the time Shutter Island came out, the nominees would have already been announced. So really, now that it’s here and I’ve seen it, what’s the real story about what happened on Shutter Island?
Martin Scorsese is considered to be a master film-maker amongst the film-making community. It would be hard to disagree with someone making that argument considering the resume of films and pedigree. And to that degree, when I heard that Scorsese was doing a “horror” movie, I was excited. I always enjoy watching directors work outside their regular genres and really stretch their style in other ways. So when I heard that Scorsese was making this movie based off a Dennis Lehane novel of the same name and working with Leo again, I couldn’t see what could go bad. Because every collaboration of these guys has been a solid if not very good film. Which isn’t to say that Shutter Island is a bad film, but it has it’s limits.
Shutter Island is less horror film and more psychological thriller. There are intense moments of suspense that are coupled with a really effective sense of place and art direction; everything looks good here but it doesn’t feel whole. I found myself being bored throughout some of the middle parts, with straying strands of narrative branching here and there. Nothing looks worn in or gritty, something I think Scorsese champions in many of his older films. This film is more reminiscent of a Gangs of New York rather than a GoodFellas. Which doesn’t make it bad, it just doesn’t for an overall atmosphere to go with the good use of tension employed. To speak of this grit, is the lack of style as a larger point that is absent for majority of this film.
There are flashes of Scorsese’s virtuouso musings in this, don’t get me wrong, but not enough to really make this movie feel much different than other mind-benders I’ve taken in. I can’t knock on the movie for not doing things I wanted to see but I can criticize that what I did see felt standard and pretty safe. The preformances are fine and the one really effective part is the score. Other than that, it’s a fine way to take in a movie, but not much more. If you want to be creeped out, then this will be fine. Other than that, I wish I was let off the island a bit sooner. This movie get’s 6 out of 10 Bones for being just fine.
RATING: