Martin Scorsese's latest thriller, Shutter Island is obviously influenced by classic films such as Hitchcock's Vertigo and is based on a novel by Dennis Lehane who's an Edgar Allen Poe award winner. The film reunites the director with Leonardo DiCaprio who's worked with him on several movies including Aviator and Gangs of New York making the pair a bit of a cinematic item. So all the ingredients for a cracking thriller are there.
The story centres around Teddy Daniels, a US Marshal sent to a remote island in the 1950s which is used as a mental institution for the criminally insane. We first see Teddy on a boat immerging from thick fog where he meets his new partner, Chuck. The pair are investigating the apparent disappearance of a patient who allegedly murdered her own children. Plus Teddy has reasons of his own for wanting to visit the island. However as they encounter staff at the hospital, including Max von Sydow who gives a sterling performance as a sinister doctor and face opposition from the man in charge Dr Cawley (Ben Kingsley) it becomes clear that all is not as it seems. There are rumours that experimental brain surgery is being carried out on certain inmates and Teddy finds it hard to know who to believe. As his investigation continues, Teddy starts to question the sanity and motives of the people supposedly helping him including Chuck.
The most interesting thing about this movie is spotting all the obvious nods to Hitchcock's movies and others including Samuel Fuller's Shock Corridor. There are also similarities to M. Night Shyamalan's films. In parts the Hitchcockian influences do work, giving the whole thing a nightmarish, dreamlike feel at times. There are more turns than Spaghetti Junction yet somehow despite the obligatory 'twist' it's all frustratingly predictable.
The main problem with the movie is that it tries so hard to confuse you it almost ties itself in knots. It tries far too hard to be clever and because it's obvious from the start that there's that 'twist' coming at the end you spend most of the movie trying to work out what it could be. Unfortunately you will probably work it out fairly early on. I know I did and was disappointed as I would have loved it more had it led me in a different direction then surprised me with the ending. As it was, I kept hoping it might be a double bluff and there would be yet a final twist but alas not.
The performances are strong and the movie is suitably atmospheric but overall it just doesn't flow as well as it could have. It's not a bad thriller, it's just not as good as a Scorsese film should be.
Click play to watch the trailer (please note it is a certificate 15):
