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"Shutter Island" sounds like the name of a cheesy reality TV series, although maybe it would be spelled "Shudder Island."
It is, in fact, the title of the Dennis Lehane thriller that has been turned into a Martin Scorsese film starring Leonardo DiCaprio. If you plan to see it, hold off on reading the book, unless you want to spoil the movie experience.
- Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Mark Ruffalo, Ben Kingsley.
- Rating: R for disturbing violent content, language and some nudity.
- Web site: www.shutterisland.com
Truth be told, though, audience members are so savvy and perceptive that they may guess the game that's afoot. When the big reveal comes, it's not so much shocking as confirmation of what you suspected all along -- but none of that detracts from a sympathetic and sensational DiCaprio performance.
The story opens in 1954 as federal marshal Teddy Daniels (Mr. DiCaprio) and his new partner, Chuck Aule (Mark Ruffalo), are bound for the Boston Harbor Islands. Their destination is Shutter Island, home to a hospital for the criminally insane.
A multiple murderess has escaped from a locked room in a feat that might challenge Houdini. With jagged, treacherous cliffs and freezing water, this island makes the one on "Lost" look like a dream destination.
The search for the patient takes place during the Cold War -- and in the wake of the horrifying hydrogen bomb blasts in the Pacific Ocean -- and less than a decade after the end of World War II and Teddy's service as a soldier.
He was present during the liberation of the Dachau concentration camp and is haunted by the memory of prisoners mounded under the snow or quivering at the barbed wire. They appear among a searing jumble of images in flashes during his waking hours and dreams.
Teddy's search for the missing patient brings him in contact with Dr. Cawley (an excellent Ben Kingsley), a bowtie-clad psychiatrist who may be trying to help or hinder the marshals, a shadowy associate (Max von Sydow) and warden (Ted Levine).
Cawley is navigating a changing world where some therapists continue to recommend surgery for violent offenders while others want to storm the brave new world of psychopharmacology.
And speaking of storms, if all this drama weren't enough, a hurricane is bearing down on the island. Forces are raging within and without, as tree branches crack and fall, the wind whips into a frightening froth and rain beats down or trickles through ceilings causing lights to crackle and dim.
As always, Mr. Scorsese more than holds up his end of this blend of thriller, Gothic horror tale, mystery and noir, as does Mr. DiCaprio. The Oscar-winning director of "The Departed" uses the images of bars, cages, locked rooms, spiral staircases and caves to emphasize the puzzle Teddy has sailed into.
The adapted screenplay by Laeta Kalogridis is more intent on holding the mystery close than exploring ideas that skitter across it like drying leaves scraping the ground.
They turn up in cryptic exchanges as when someone suggests, "God loves violence ... why else would there be so much of it?" and another counters, "I thought God gave us moral order."
Some of "Shutter Island" simply seems illogical or a cheat once you get to the end, but maybe all that will be made clear on second viewing (no time soon, though, given its 138-minute length) or while listening to a future director's commentary. Or maybe not.
Disturbing, intense and just average Scorsese, this Hitchcockian mind game is more cinematically rich than what most of February is delivering. True, it's no "Departed," but it's no "Wolfman," either.
Contact movie editor Barbara Vancheri at bvancheri@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1632. Read her Mad About the Movies blog at post-gazette.com/movies.
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