D: Martin ScorseseW: Laeta Kalogridis
C: Leonardo DiCaprio, Mark Ruffalo, Ben Kingsley, Max von Sydow, Michelle Williams, etc.
A friend talked me into seeing this and I didn't really put up much of a fight at the time, since I was planning to watch it sooner or later. Martin Scorsese directing seemed like a good enough reason.
This is a very long film, not just looking at the total running time of 138 minutes, but how long it actually feels. Most of the scenes are so unnecessarily drawn out that I felt like I was watching a 4 hour movie. Shutter Island is heavy on dialogue and unfortunately it's nothing memorable. Laeta Kalogridis is no Quentin Tarantino, who can pull off long scenes with refined dialogue, while keeping the tension going.
Trailer gives the impression of a horror movie, when it's actually a surprisingly slow-paced thriller. Shutter Island belongs into the category of mindfuck movies such as Fight Club and Memento. First half of the story tells the audience a lie that is then turned upside down and rendered obsolete. Your enjoyment depends a lot on whether you can figure out the turn or not. Unfortunately, Shutter Island is also heavy on exposition, which makes the drawn-out dialogue-heavy scenes feel like you're constantly spoon-fed. That coupled with figuring out the story way ahead of time, can really ruin this movie for you. And for me, that was pretty much the case.
If you're lucky, then the biggest moment of exposition will come as a surprise and you're able to enjoy it as a straightforward thriller. With the right mindset, this would be an enjoyable ride. My mind, at the moment of watching it, was slightly hung over from the night before and mildly tired. In other words, my tolerance level was lower than usual. While Martin Scorsese brings with him his expertise, he's a little out of touch with the contemporary horror/thriller genre. Editing and camera work is nice, some beautiful dream sequences here and there, overall polish and production value is present. Scorsese hasn't written much in the past 10 years and here he seems almost disconnected from the project. With The Departed, you could feel the weight of his contribution to the project as a whole. This thing lacks a certain level of emotional investment.
Shutter Island is the fourth collaboration for Scorsese and DiCaprio; the $40.2 million opening weekend is also a career best for both. These two seem to enjoy working together just as Burton and Depp. Nothing wrong with that obviously, but what exactly drove both to this particular project ? Handed over from director Wolfgang Petersen to David Fincher to Martin Scorsese, it's a studio cash-in and certainly not a labor of love. It's one of those films you can enjoy watching, but there's 5 or 10 others every year that are just as good. The amount of positive feedback has left me a little puzzled, even though I wasn't in the clearest of moods while watching it, but what exactly differentiates Shutter Island from the rest of the mediocre/decent horror/thrillers of recent years such as The Ring (2002) or Gothika (2003) ? The only reason people are going to remember this 5-10 years from now is that it was directed by Martin Scorsese. Laeta Kalogridis's writing was forgettable and her writing credits in general are far from impressive (Alexander, Pathfinder).
I was expecting a thought-provoking mystery that would leave me baffled, but instead Shutter Island mostly depends on a couple of moments of exposition, some nice CGI sequences and Martin Scorsese's bag of tricks. The long spoonfeeding scenes of unnecessary explanation of the plot and it's characters do a lot of harm. When the truth comes out, the rest of the film is standard wrapping up of what's left that feels even more drawn-out than some of the longer scenes. There's too much excess dialogue here; the film should have been considerably shorter. 4 or 5 people walked out of the theater halfway through and even though I felt the same way, I was with friends and I prefer to finish a movie that I payed to see. I hope others enjoy it more than I did, cos it can be enjoyable in the right state of mind. With that said, there's not much here that would justify multiple viewings or to be even remembered if it weren't for a masterful director. And I seriously hope that no one cried at the end of this.
6/10
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