MovieMantz Review: ‘Shutter Island’

“A Rock-Solid Thriller”

“Shutter Island”
Leonardo DiCaprio, Mark Ruffalo
Directed by Martin Scorsese

If 2006’s “The Departed,” which won Academy Awards for Best Picture and Best Director, was universally praised as Martin Scorsese’s best movie since 1990’s “Goodfellas,” then his follow-up, “Shutter Island,” succeeds as his most intense psychological thriller since 1991’s “Cape Fear.” And teaming up with Scorsese for the fourth time, Leonardo DiCaprio delivers an exceptionally brave, committed and impressive performance that’s among his very best.

But despite those well-deserved accolades, “Shutter Island” is sluggish, uneven and – at 2 hours and 18 minutes – a little on the long side. Scorsese succeeds in projecting a foreboding sense of doom (which is elevated by the menacing score assembled by Robbie Robertson), but the convoluted midsection drags until the big payoff, which may not be all that surprising to those familiar with the 2003 bestseller of the same name written by Dennis Lehane (“Mystic River”).

DiCaprio plays Teddy Daniels, a U.S. Marshall in 1954 who’s still haunted by his memories of World War II and the death of his wife (Michelle Williams). When he and his partner (Mark Ruffalo) are summoned to the mental hospital on Shutter Island to investigate the disappearance of a patient, he uncovers a conspiracy that goes far beyond his initial investigation. But before he can make it off the island to report his findings, he’s trapped by a fierce hurricane and other dark forces that threaten to keep him there forever.

From the moment Daniels arrives on Shutter Island, it’s obvious that he’s in store for one mighty rough ride that will test the limits of his fragile mental state. After being greeted by hostile prison guards, he’s driven along the rough terrain to the mental hospital, where he meets doctors, nurses and administrators who are just as suspicious as their patients. It’s only a matter of time before Daniels cracks under the pressure of Shutter Island, a dark and uninviting rock that makes Alcatraz look like Disneyland by comparison.

And after working with Scorsese on 2002’s “Gangs of New York,” 2004’s “The Aviator” and “The Departed,” Leonardo DiCaprio gives his most riveting performance yet for the Oscar-winning director. The screenplay (written by Laeta Kalogridis) provides more background to his experiences as a war vet than the book did. He’s in over his head and drowning faster than he can solve the mystery, but his straight-laced partner, effectively played by Mark Ruffalo, is no help, nor is the hospital’s chief psychiatrist, played by Ben Kingsley.

Scorsese knows how to set the mood, but he lays on the intensity so thick that the end result, which recalls the trapped feeling of classics like Stanley Kubrick’s “The Shining” and Milos Forman’s “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest,” is more intense and gripping than emotionally involving. So while “Shutter Island” fits the bill as a worthy-enough follow-up to “The Departed,” it’s safe to say that better films from Scorsese are down the line.

Verdict: SEE IT!