Cost of Island Destination Is Sheer Insanity

Shutter Island

Last month I did a top 5 post on the best and worst Martin Scorsese films. Needless to say the post received a lot of passionate feedback. Andrew at Encore’s World of Film and TV even labelled me a heretic, a badge I wear proudly mind you, for even suggesting that Scorsese has ever made a bad  film. Having stirred the pot once already, the sensible thing would be ease off Scorsese for a while; luckily common sense was never one of my strong points.

The year is 1954, U.S. Marshall Teddy Daniels (Leonardo DiCaprio) and Chuck Aule (Mark Ruffalo) are sent to the notorious Shutter Island institution to investigate the disappearance of a patient. Stranded on the island, due to a terrible storm, Teddy begins to get headaches as he drifts in and out of hallucinations. As Teddy struggles with his sanity, he begins to question what type of experiments Dr. Cawley (Ben Kingsley) and Dr. Naehring (Max von Sydow) are conducting on the Shutter Island.

Let me just get this out of the way first, the last act of this film is ridiculous. Actually, it is more the aspects of the “reveal” rather than the cause it. I do not want to give away any spoilers so I will try to keep my annoyances brief. I will merely say that I found it highly unlikely that a facility like Shutter Island, which is home to some of the most dangerous and damaged patients, would allow such a free roaming environment. This is especially preposterous when you factor in the violent nature of certain patients.

The “reveal” aside, I must say that I was pleasantly surprised by the majority of Shutter Island. Martin Scorsese did a great job of maintaining the atmosphere, the best part of the film, and the overall suspense for the first 2/3 of the picture. The eeriness of the art direction kept me hooked the entire way through. The film could have used a little tighter editing, as it does run a bit long, but this is a minor quibble. Especially when you look at how wonderful the performances are during the course of the film.

The standout performances for me are those of Leonardo DiCaprio and Michelle Williams. There scenes together were fantastic, only Dicaprio’s scene during the war came close to rivalling their husband and wife moments. I also thought the large supporting cast, which included Emily Mortimer, Patricia Clarkson, Jackie Earle Haley, and Elias Koteas, did a terrific job of maintaining the level of tension. Normally I find it a bit distracting when I film such as this has so many high profile cameos. Yet none of the cameos felt out of place. Again, if it was not for the silly explanation that Martin Scorsese offers up in the last act, Shutter Island could have been a great movie. Still, the film is worth seeing for the first two acts alone.

The 5 Best & Worst Scorsese Films

I had planned to write an editorial piece on Martin Scorsese for the LAMBs in the Director's Chair series but time was not on my side this month. Still here are my picks for the best and worst Scorsese films:

The Best

The King of Comedy

I am not sure why this film does not get more love from the general public. In my opinion this is a hidden gem in Martin Scorsese's large canon of work.

Raging Bull

Still one of the best sports related films ever made. I remember first seeing this on the big screen at age 13 or so. The film was playing at one of the old historic theatres downtown as part of a Scorsese double bill. Even at a young age this film blew me away.

Taxi Driver

I came close to placing either After Hours or The Last Waltz here, but ultimately went with Driver. The film has been quoted to death so it does not have the same replay value as some of the other ones on the list. Still every once and a while it is good to revisit the dark mind of Travis Bickle.

Goodfellas

You knew this would appear on the list somewhere. With the exception of The Godfather series, ever other gangster film gets compared to this cinematic classic.

The Departed

I was tempted to put Mean Street in this spot but figured I needed a break from the Scorsese/De Niro pairing. I loved Infernal Affairs and I really like how Scorsese remade the film. Since I have not seen Shutter Island yet, hope to catch it in the next week or so, I would say this is the best film of his films with Leonardo Dicaprio.

The Worst

Gangs of New York

The beginning of the Scorsese/DiCaprio era also coincided with the tail end of Scorsese’s decade long “Give Me an Oscar” push. Daniel Day-Lewis’ Bill the Butcher is the only reason to watch this bloated mess.

The Age of Innocence

Love the casting, found the film to be rather dull on the whole. It also did not help that this came out when Ismail Merchant and  James Ivory were still at the top of their game.  There are far better period piece romances out there.

Kundun

The cinematography is fantastic but the film just did not live up to my expectation.

The Aviator

See Gangs of New York comments minus Daniel Day-Lewis. DiCaprio gives a good performance in the film but I walked away learning nothing new, or interesting, about Howard Hughes. To see a biopic done right go back up to Raging Bull.

Casino

I like it better when it was called Goodfellas...