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Shutter Island (2010)
Martin Scorsese
Impression published on Sunday, 2011-04-24 | Film | 2 stars
You know--to be honest--this movie did not make much of an impression.
Which is not to say that Scorsese or DiCaprio are on auto-pilot. Quite the opposite is true of the movie I saw: everything from the painstaking costuming to the lilting, Gage-infused gothic/chamber score gives the impression of incredible attention to detail in realizing of the world of the island and contributes to a really pleasant, sensuous production; the cast (which includes Oscar Winner Ben Kingsley) is a real treat to watch, and for my money, DiCaprio gets closer to credibility than he ever has.
Additionally, the whole thing is very richly detailed and overtly luxurious and therefore much more in the style of The Aviator than The Departed: in fact, if you're looking for an analogous production, I think you have to look outside of Scorsese's oeuvre and end up settling on something like Ridley Scott's 2001 adaptation of Hannibal.
After all, both films endeavor, in their way, to capture the uniquely 20th century encounter with the horrific Absolute that occurs when the fire-lit velvet and warm confusion of cognac on offer in the gentleman doctor's drawing room abruptly give way to the screaming, white-tile fluorescence and choking antiseptic precision of the surgical theatre.
But, much like Thomas Harris via Ridley Scott, Dennis Lehane via Martin Scorsese is not particularly compelling or exciting. I really am not sure why, but even though I enjoyed both movies quite a bit, I don't feel particularly strongly about either.
