Shutter Island (2010)

(seen on Edinburgh, Scotland, on Sunday last)

A GOOD Scorsese/DiCaprio film? It seems hard (at least for me) to believe, but the answer is YES! Actually I am not a fan of Scorcese. Only "Goodfellas" did it for me, and some on the 70s were so so. His movies are slow-paced, boring and attempt a lavishness they never really achieve. Everybody forgot his major flops in the 1990s at the turn of the century, and then, after "Gangs of New York" (acceptable), his last two efforts (Aviator and Departed) were awful movies, the second only achieving award greatness by sheer politics (why else do you think Coppola, Spielberg AND Lucas presented the oscar for best director, one time only 3 people, and guess what, Scorcese's friends?! after he lost Aviator it was decided whatever movie he did the following year he would win!). Anyway, these conspiracies aside, I have to give credit where credit is due. And Shutter is a good movie. Probably not the acting (DiCaprio, why people still think he can act?!), but the screenplay, which is very good. Maybe that's the trouble with Scorsese, he doesn't get good screenplays, as he doesn't write them himself. This movie follows two federal marshals investigating the disappearance of a woman from an institution for the criminally insane, in an island, obviously made inaccessible due to bad weather. Or doesn't it? As the plot thickens, as DiCaprio unravels bit by bit the mystery, one starts to wonder what secrets the island really hides or if it is all an illusion. A great psychological thriller, whose ending (obviously I will not speak about it) pleased me very much, specially because it was given slowly, piece by piece, and not on a climatic shocking scene, allowing the audiences time to ponder everything. The last line of the film is delicious. Scorcese's camera seemed always artificial, but this resulted very well, as the movie gets more and more dream-like as the mind games develop. Very good also was the introduction of music at key moments (source classical music nevertheless, not original), which gave a very good sense of tension, reminiscent of Hitch/Herrmann. All in all enjoyed it, probably the best Scorsese film I have seen. Recommend it. Some may find the end weird, but the journey to there is worth taking.