Review: Shutter Island

Scorsese returns to big screen storytelling for his first dramatic feature since The Departed won him a Best Director Oscar three years ago. Shutter Island sees Marty team with Leo DiCaprio for their fourth feature together. The story of Shutter Island sees two federal marshalls in the 1950s travel to an island which houses an institution for the criminally insane. Both men feel information is being kept from them and therefore have to distrust everyone from doctors to the orderlies and everyone in between. From the very first scene it is evident that Scorsese is referencing some old-school thrillers from the score to the cliched use of the weather everything is in place to give the audience chills. Laeta Kalogridis' script based on Dennis Lehane's novel is very well done giving the audience bits of information throughout the film rather than all at once. This allows us to try and question some of the flashbacks that Leo's character has and what they might mean. Although at times the film is overly talky and some of the dialogue is a bit clunky at a times laughable it all fits in the with the tone of the film. The film is incredibly well shot and stylised the sets and especially the costumes all add to the tone and themes that run throughout the film.

As previously stated Leo is perfect as the seemingly by-the-book lawman suspicious of the intellectuals who aren't giving the information he needs. Mark Ruffalo is perfect sidekick material as Leo's partner Chuck, while Sir Ben Kingsley and Max Von Sydow are equally creepy as the pipe-smoking head of the institution and the German therapist respectively. Emily Mortimer and Patricia Clarkson both steal the respective scenes in which they feature while Monk's Ted Levine also has fun in his scene as the island's Warden. While other films such as One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and Girl Interrupted have used the space of the instution to create isolation for the characters, the theme throughout Shutter Island is definitely what does it mean to be insane? And how far to we have to go before we are declared mad? There are a couple of negatives in the film, I found the overuse of flashbacks at the beginning of the film meant that it was hard to stick with the opening linear narrative and as previously stated some of the lines and character traits are a bit cheesy or clunky but to an extent that adds to the old school feel of the piece.

While it's never going to be considered a classic like some of Scorsese's previous works it is still one of his most purely entertaining films. While none of the characters has the depth of Jake LaMotta or Travis Bickle the film provides constant thrills and shocks and you will still be thinking about the film long after you leave the cinema. Possibly the most purely entertaining film of the year so far.