There is no director alive today who understands the language and history of film better than Martin Scorsese. Whenever he leverages that understanding — in other words, whenever he makes a film — it is usually a treat on some level.
His latest, the period horror thriller “Shutter Island,” seems more like a mature artist’s experiment than a complete work on par with a legacy that includes “Taxi Driver,” “Raging Bull” and at least a half-dozen more of the most essential films of the last 40 years.
Hey, but so what if this Leonardo DiCaprio vehicle is a little too operatic and even campy in its retro approach? Who cares if the suspense yarn turns out to hinge on one enormous, disappointing red herring? The way Scorsese places and moves a camera, the stunning visual precision of every object in each shot, the exhilarating performances he extracts — he pays homage to classic film while brandishing his own expertise as a consummate stylist.
With a screenplay by Laeta Kalogridis, based on the eponymous novel by “Mystic River’s” Dennis Lehane, Scorsese transforms a mystery set at a remote mental institution for the criminally insane into a memorial to midcentury film noir, Hitchcock and the paranoia of the traumatized post-World War II era and early Atomic Age.
‘Shutter Island’
3 out of 5 Stars
Stars: Leonardo DiCaprio, Mark Ruffalo, Ben Kingsley, Max von Sydow
Director: Martin Scorsese
Rated R for disturbing violent content, language and some nudity
Running time: 138 minutes
Set in 1954, it seems that Federal Marshall Teddy Daniels (a weathered DiCaprio) and his apparent new partner, Chuck (Mark Ruffalo), are investigating the disappearance of one of the inmates/patients from a weird “snake pit,” run by two cagey doctors on a tiny island off the Massachusetts coast. Brilliant character actors Ben Kingsley and Max von Sydow barely need to blink to seem creepy and threatening; they are perfect for their roles here.
We shouldn’t give away much plot. But suffice it to say that nothing is as it first appears for Teddy, a widower and Army veteran who helped liberate the concentration camp Dachau. Throughout the investigation, which unfolds during a hurricane that reflects his inner turmoil, the troubled protagonist is haunted by hideous dreams of his dead wife (Michelle Williams) and the war horrors he witnessed. They provide clues to the real mystery.
Emily Mortimer, Jackie Earle Haley, and Ted Levine help round out a suitably unnerving supporting cast for a thriller more notable for spellbinding mood than for storytelling substance. But you will shudder at times during “Shutter Island.”
