"Shutter Island" Leonardo Di Caprio, Ben Kingsley, Michelle Williams, Mark Ruffalo
Ed Augusts
Here is a movie in which the action takes place in 1954 when two
federal marshals, played by Leonardo Di Caprio and his sidekick, Mark
Ruffalo, are heading on a ferry from the mainland to a wooded, mostly
cliff-faced island off the Boston coast on which a mental hospital for
dangerous felons has been constructed. Surprisingly echoing "The
Wicker Man" just a bit, the Feds have been summoned to investigate a
missing woman, one who disappeared from her room against all odds, and
without wearing either pair of shoes she had in her possession. She
couldn't get too far without her shoes, could she? And someone MUST
have helped her escape... It is evident at once that something a bit
odd is going on. So it starts out a bit weird, but don't worry -- it
gets weirder! So weird, eventually you won't know if you've climbed
up into the island's lighthouse, or if you're still in the nuthouse.
The thing to realize before seeing Shutter Island the first time, is
that you are going to feel that you HAVE to see it a second time. I
absolutely guarantee you will feel this, unless you're that "one-in-
ten" person who doesn't like it at all, or more likely, doesn't "get
it". Anyone of discernment and intelligence who doesn't totally
suffer from a sense of impending claustrophobia, or has reason to hate
and fear the psychiatric fraternity, will be lured back quite easily
to have another experience, since the 2nd experience will be totally
different from the 1st experience. Because the 1st experience happened
in the dark, in what feels like a state of semi-consciousness. The
second experience can be had with eyes wide-open. Wanting to see this
movie a 2nd time will have nothing necessarily to do with the
wonderful acting, although everyone in this movie deserves to take a
bow, especially Leonardo Di Caprio in the first really mature role
I've personally seen him do. He simultaneously manages to play a "B"
movie 'detective' type while also playing a man with a unique history
and mindset above and beyond any "B' movie roles. He is an awesome
presence in this movie, the more so because of the very twists and
turns it (and he) make along the way. Ben Kingsley is worth his
weight in gold here as the head shrink. Kingsley finally landed a role
that gave him as much gravity and ability to make a powerful
impression as "Gandhi" nearly 30 years ago. Michelle Williams is
suitably gorgeous as a lovely recurring memory, but she's actually a
kind of Lilith in this piece, that is, a succubus... and more! Look-
up the nature of the ancient demon goddess Lilith and you will see
what I mean. At first, like when we see many a beauty, in real life
or fantasy, we have no clue that she might be dangerous.
But what makes me (and you, after you see this flick) want to go back
and see it a second time, is the fact the movie gets slightly
peculiar, then a bit more peculiar, then more & more peculiar, as
characters start acting in ways they shouldn't in real life -- not if
everything's "on the level". It's almost as if our senses are being
fooled. Maybe it's us who are being slightly victimized. The main
character starts SEEING things, and of course, so do we; and the
most interesting 'things' are the dreams and memories the federal
marshal starts having, mainly going back to events surrounding his
participation in the liberation of Dachau Concentration Camp in the
last year of the Second World War and the dead whom he saw piled up
there. Actually, two of the dead: A certain mother and child. Let
me just say, that Di Caprios dreams and memories, partly engendered by
a migraine he's suffering from, suddenly take a big jump. He is given
aspirin or some other medication --- Is he being given psychotropic
drugs as the psychiatrist whom he happens to meets, hiding in a cave
warns him? Why does one of the patients he interviews scribble in his
notepad the word, "RUN"? And why does the patient distract his
partner, another federal marshal (Mark Ruffalo), before she can bring
herself to scribble the warning?
The action takes a big twist near the end, and then another, maybe
smaller twist, at the VERY end. The bizarre solution to the ongoing
mystery necessitates viewing the preceding material again; there is
no other way, because by the end of the first viewing, I guarantee
that you will want to pay even closer attention the second time around
to every event, every nuance, every 'red herring'.
There ARE some red herrings; we're thrown a few curves. One tiny point
here, about something which won't give away a thing -- don't worry, I
won't "spoil" this one! -- When the Leonardo Di Caprio character is
shown the mental patient who was thought to be missing, he finds a
note that was hidden in a torn patch of carpet that implies there
aren't 66 patients -- there are 67 patients on the island. Even after
seeing the movie, it is difficult to ascertain who, in their right
mind, or even their wrong one, would have placed that note in the
carpeting -- and why. And even after seeing the movie, and knowing
there are a number of visual hallucinations,. the lighthouse is a
puzzle. Supposedly being used for nefarious purposes, cut off from
land by a little strait of ocean, it is hard to figure whether the
story ends up in the lighthouse or on dry land.
There is a monster storm in this movie which is not a hallucination,
and there was a hurricane-strength storm that bore down on New England
in the mid-1950's, very much like this storm did, cutting off the
power, unlocking many locked doors, throughout the facility. The
island itself is like one of the characters in this story, it works
out beautifully. Every venture outside the asylum is a joy, since,
despite what you might expect, the island is nothing like some kind of
Alcatraz.... which you might otherwise half-expect it to be. The
island has ample woods, shores, cliffs, caves. Whoever thought of
this island, or at least, 'cast' the island, ought to win a prize or
get some money, maybe both.
If you don't mind a story where "everybody's in on it" except us, and
some crazies are sane, and vice-versa, and, moreover, where, even when
you're done seeing it, some of the parts of the jigsaw puzzle haven't
all been assembled yet, and where the actors give sterling, stylish,
exciting performances, well, then, this is a movie for you! If you
get all choked-up at the innocent dead, however, you might think
twice. Better yet, see the movie first and then decide if you can
accept the cluch of grief at the sight of some young dead bodies or
not. The movie is strong enough to make almost anything possible.
----------Ed http://www.edaugusts.com ---- my 14-page website.