film reviews

There are few directors out there that, when you hear they are making a new film, you put that film on your must see list. These are names like Spielberg, Cameron, and of course Martin Scorsese, directors that never seem to make a bad film. For his current film Scorsese has chosen one of Dennis Lehane’s novels, Shutter Island, which is written for the screen by Leata Kalogridis. The story, like all of Lehanes, takes place near Boston and tells the tale of an investigation into a patient who escapes from a mental institution. The film begins on a boat, where we see two Federal Marshals traveling to Shutter Island to begin their investigation. The two marshals are named Teddy Daniles (Leonardo DiCapro) and his new partner Chuck Aule (Mark Ruffalo), who neither one no much about their destination Once they arrive they are briefed about the protocols of the institution and are asked to surrender their firearms before they can enter the gates. Once inside the gates they are shown the three buildings that house the inmates, one for the males, one for the females and, one for the most violent criminals. They are taken to the psychologist in charge, a Dr Cawley (Ben kingsley), who tells them the story of a patient named Rachel Solando., It turns out no one knows how she became missing, it almost seems that she disappears into thin air. As the Marshals begin to look deeper into their case, they start to see that everything is not right at Shutter Island. The find holes in the stories of the orderlies and are concerned about the reluctance that both chief psychologist show in sharing information. The story takes place in 1954 and both Daniels and Aule are veterans of World War II, and Daniels especially seems to still be haunted by that past. As the marshals try and piece the puzzle together, the island is struck by a hurricane, which only makes their investigation more difficult. Everything takes a turn when all of a sudden Rachel Solando (Emily Mortimer) reappears and shows no signs of ever missing at all. We find out later the Daniels is also there to look for a man that he believes killed his wife Dolores (Michelle Williams), by setting his apartment building on fire. From there the story takes some turns and has one of the better endings and ties up the story very well. DiCapro is amazing in his performance, as he always seems to be when he works with Martin Scorsese. The other actors are good as well and the story seems to keep the suspense at the right amount as you try and figure it all out. My only knock on the movie is that it took the road it did in explaining everything, I just thought it was too predictable. The great acting and the music make up for what the story lacks and all come together nicely under Scorsese. This film isn’t as good as most of Scorsese best, but then again an average Scorsese film is better then most filmmaker’s greatest piece of work.

Brian Taylor