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Two words to perfectly describe the film “Shutter Island”: Unpredictably predictable.
Released nationwide on Feb.19, Martin Scorcese’s latest film seems to advertise a good scare. Previews marketed the movie as a horror flick, using creepy images of an old, hairless woman reminiscent of a character found in “The Ring” or “The Grudge.” However, the fact of the matter is that Scorcese left the gore and screams to the pros and led viewers on an almost two-and-a-half hour rollercoaster of mind-twisting thrills.
“Shutter Island” promoted “the story of two U.S. marshals, Teddy Daniels (Leonardo DiCaprio) and Chuck Aule (Mark Ruffalo), who are summoned to a remotely barren island off the coast of Massachusetts to investigate the mysterious disappearance of a murderer from the island’s fortress-like hospital for the criminally insane.”
While this synopsis is accurate, it is far from complete. The problem? It is almost impossible to describe the movie as a whole, due to its often confusing, overlapping jump cuts from reality into the supernatural. At least, it would be impossible to do without spoiling the ending and the film in its entirety. I have heard from several people, that until halfway into the movie, many of the clues were left unnoticed. They were assumed to be a deception of the eyes, when in reality, it was Scorcese’s attempt at revealing what will happen later on to the viewers.
Senior English major R. Sam Chaney saw the film and has his own theory on the various plots.
“The lead character [DiCaprio] has an intriguing detective job, which at first seems like it has lots of movie and popcorn fun potential,” Chaney said. “That is, until it gets bungled up with two other plot motivators. All are okay on their own, but together make the entire storyline teeter and come very close to crumbling before we get to the twist ending.”
Though I did enter the theater hoping to encounter a bit of horror, I was not disappointed with the results. However, for those who have been enticed by the film’s haunting previews, I am afraid that this story is not what you have been looking for. During my screening, it seemed the most frightening part of the film was when an unexpected, loud noise (which I do not believe was meant to be scary) broke the silence of a particularly calm and silent moment, causing almost every head in the theater to bob up over each seat, followed by embarrassed laughter. The story of “Shutter Island” itself is definitely unnerving—thanks to beautifully bone-chilling cinematography—yet I still believe that those who normally refuse to indulge in the genre, but toughen up to see the film, will be more pleased than petrified.
I found “Shutter Island” to be quite evocative of Christopher Nolan’s “Memento” (2000), utilizing the same tools and tricks to stretch the imagination and bend the mind. But this time, only 10 times more intense. DiCaprio’s character and his relationship to wife, Dolores (Michelle Williams), is strikingly similar to the qualities of Guy Pierce’s protagonist in “Memento.” Without revealing any spoilers, I will say that while the connection is very much present, it turns out that the plotlines differ greatly by the ending of “Shutter Island,” separating itself from its counterpart of “Memento.”
Sans spoilers, I can only continue to say that the film is full of twists and turns that are sure to leave your brain puzzled until the very end. In my seat, with eyes fixed to the screen, I kept coming up with ideas as to what was really happening, or what was going to happen. I ended up coming up with a completely new plot about every 10-minutes or so. All of this led to a lot of exaggerated “ohhhhs,” and “now I get it.”
Luckily, for those who like closure with their plots, “Shutter Island” is not one of those films to leave loose ends unraveled, subsequently leaving the viewer with nothing to ponder or question on their way out the theater doors. Scorcese’s newest effort is an “open and shut case,” as Chaney describes. There will definitely be no “Shutter Island II” as everything comes together within the last five minutes.
“All in all, I’ll say that this movie is probably best appreciated with multiple viewings (see and you’ll know why),” Chaney said. “But overall I felt like was watching M. Night Shyamalan gotcha-craft rather than Scorsese’s nearly impeccable film-making capabilities.”
In the end, it turns out that I had predicted what was going to happen, though I was never completely correct in any single guess (hence the unpredictable predictability). I suppose that’s good because who likes to know the ending of a movie 10-minutes into it anyway?
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