In the opening scene of Martin Scorsese’s latest offering, we encounter U.S. Marshals Teddy Daniels (Leonardo DiCaprio) and Chuck Aule (Mark Ruffalo) travelling by boat, staring out across the water as their destination, this eponymous isle, drifts into view. “All I know is it's a mental hospital” remarks Chuck, “ ...for the criminally insane” adds Teddy, mysteriously. This is what this homage to the psychological thrillers of the 1950’s, and particularly those by Alfred Hitchcock, does best: create an ominous, shadowy atmosphere. Scorsese has a deft directorial touch which, as in all his films, is apparent here. The attention to detail used in recreating the tone of this particular epoch in film is certainly impressive. Unfortunately it never really moves onwards from there, almost as if all the energy in the film was focused on mastering that effect whilst other aspects fell by the wayside, minor aspects like the plot.
What makes Hitchcock’s thrillers so suspenseful, outside the innovation of his directing, is their profound psychological impact. His characters often have the potential to astonish and horrify an audience and draw empathy from them simultaneously. From the perversity exhibited in Vertigo and Psycho, to the more psychoanalytical perspective of Spellbound and Marnie, these stories are disturbing because their singular characters test the extremities of human nature, which will always keep us guessing. Shutter Island is badly missing this vital component. Without the psychological foundations, the clever directing amounts to very little. Watching the film I felt like I was grasping at thin air. Its mystifying atmosphere soon becomes irritatingly fuzzy, rather than a mystery story that draws you in, it becomes a string of vague notions, punctuated by the odd clue hinting towards the films inevitable twist ending with all the subtlety of a sledgehammer. DiCaprio fails to convince as a man fighting for his own sanity. I have yet to be persuaded by his instatement as Scorsese’s latest muse; this role would have been a particularly effective showcase for DeNiro’s terrifying edge. Adding to the inescapable vagueness of Shutter Island is the generic and caricatured portrayal of mental illness. It might well be the 1950’s but I doubt patients would be kept in dingy, dungeon-like cells. The films of Hitchcock, which were actually filmed in this period, are no way near as dumbed down. Whereas he gave insight into the psychological particulars of his characters, here it seems that most of the island’s inhabitants are just suffering from a case of the crazies. Scorsese has achieved one lobotomy too many with this film; I left the cinema with my brain completely disengaged. 2/5
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