Shutter Island Made My Mother Fall Asleep
Back in June of last year, I discussed my love for Boston-area crime novelist Dennis Lehane and reported that Martin Scorsese would be adapting his noir thriller, Shutter Island. Yesterday my parents, my dear friends the O’Keefe’s, and myself all went to see Marty’s finished product. I’ve been really looking forward to this movie. Scorsese is hit or miss with me, but the man is a living god so every time he releases a film it’s a cause for celebration.
Last summer I spent two sleepless nights reading Lehane’s Shutter Island. It’s a perfect novel. Really. The movie was supposed to be released back in October ’09, then got pushed back for Oscar reasons or something to February ’10. Even though it takes 20 minutes to get to the theater, me and my movie anxiety forced my family and friends to leave an hour and a half early. I was afraid it would be sold out. And even if it wasn’t sold out, we had a party of five which is hard to find adjacent seating for in a crowded theater. After all of this god damn anxiety, my mother fell asleep during the movie.
Dig: It’s 1954. Federal Marshall Edward “Teddy” Daniels (Leo Di) and his new partner, Chuck Aule (Mark Ruffalo), have been sent to Shutter Island off of Boston Harbor to investigate the disappearance of a “patient” at Ashecliffe Hospital for the Criminally Insane. Very quickly, it appears that something is off at the hospital, and as Teddy and Chuck dig deeper, ghosts from Teddy’s own violent past begin to surface. Nazis, arsonists, and Hollywood’s version of “fahking Bahston” accents abound against a dripping gothic backdrop. (PS: The Boston Phoenix posted a great photo essay of the actual Shutter Island: Boston Harbor’s Long Island where Lehane once visited as a kid.)
So what went wrong? Why did my old lady fall asleep? Well, for a thriller, it overstays its welcome after the two hour mark. The novel is tight with Lehane’s economic prose, but the movie draws out the flashbacks beyond relevance. At two and a half hours, it got to be a chore at the end. Granted, it’s sort of uncharted territory for Scorsese; I don’t think he’s tackled suspense since 1991′s Cape Fear remake. But Cape Fear was awesome and this wasn’t.
Leo DiCaprio wasn’t bad though. I like that dude. His Teddy ran the gamut of emotions and I was reminded of Dustin Hoffman in Marathon Man and even Kevin McCarthy in Invasion of the Body Snatchers. Mark Ruffalo was dope, as always. Honestly, the whole cast brought their A game, but I honestly feel like it was Scorsese that fucked the movie up. I hated writing that last sentence.
Once the lights came back on, I was in such a rush to leave the theater that I left my blacked out Bear Mop fitted behind. I was bummed out and just wanted to go home to watch some Nick at Night and drink Yuengling. I really hope this movie doesn’t scar Lehane’s rep in eyes of those who haven’t read him. The adaptations of his books Mystic River and Gone Baby, Gone were fantastic and successfully reflected his complex take on human nature. Scorsese’s Shutter Island just over-reached. Read the book instead.
- Oh Mars
February 21st, 2010 at 10:40 pm
I will read the book, but the movie was wonderful. I’ll watch it on DVD when it comes out.
February 21st, 2010 at 10:44 pm
It was good, but the pacing was uneven. By the time the storm hit I was on the edge of my fucking seat, then as you began to realize what was really going on it ran out of steam. Can’t hate on Scorsese’s direction though; I thought it was shot masterfully, and the soundtrack was epic, feel that it was mainly the screenplay which needed some editing.
Friends all hated it though. Thought the ending just made the whole thing pointless, which I can agree with, but if you pick up on all the subtle weird shit in the film (Chuck fumbling with his gun, water glass, rats, etc) it makes for a pretty surreal, genre bending flick.
February 21st, 2010 at 10:57 pm
I was watching it as a fan of the book, so I’m sure it was totally different for people who were experiencing the story for the first time and didn’t know what was going on.
February 21st, 2010 at 11:08 pm
Lehane is quality pulp! I will read the book but sleep on the movie most likely. Scorsese’s last four films have all been overlong Oscar bait. I blame Kevin Costner for making Dances With Wolves, which beat Goodfellas at the Academy Awards. Losing the prize to a human cocker spaniel changed Scorsese’s style thereafter for the worse. If they’d rewarded him for Goodfellas he’d still be making gritty, uncompromising films full of funny-looking New York actors. Try watching Goodfellas followed by The Aviator sometime, it’s ecstasy to despair in under 5 hours.
February 22nd, 2010 at 10:44 am
wow
Vidiot just blew my mind.
ps – don’t know why but I really like the brown marker in that last shot.
February 22nd, 2010 at 11:43 am
yo oh mars, thanks for writing about this. i’ve been wanting to talk to someone about it, but none of my friends have seen it.
there were really just two things that killed it for me.
#1: THE WTF MOMENTS
i’m usually a huge fan of WTF moments in films. like in “the shining” when shelley duvall is running up the stairs and she sees the butler blowing some dude in a bear suit. or when all that blood flows through the halls of that creepy-ass inn. moments like that really make me think when i watch a movie, which is awesome. they make me wonder about what the film makers are alluding to. i think kubric uses those WTF moments perfectly and just frequently enough to keep you thinking in “the shining.” but in “shutter island” there’s a WTF moment every two minutes. i mean i was fucking bombarded by all of teddy’s (or andrew’s) crazy flashbacks—so many that i actually stopped taking the movie seriously. 75% of the damn movie was teddy’s dreams. he even had fucking dreams WITHIN other dreams. it was exhausting. and not exhausting like it was making me think. exhausting like “wow this is so ridiculous, i don’t know how much longer i can handle this.” killer (in a bad way).
#2: IT WAS ALL A DREAM!
the ending did me in. i haven’t read the book in it’s entirety, so i don’t know if i’m beefing with scorcese or lehane on this one. but the fact that teddy’s whole adventure was essentially “a dream” really made me feel like the whole damn movie was a waste of time. i know, i know…it wasn’t a dream, but it basically was. it was as if he was living a dream. nothing was ACTUALLY real. that part just really disappointed me. it was the last straw. after all that build up, all the suspense….it wasn’t real. it was a dramatization. a fucking dream more or less.
sorry to ramble so much. in the end, i’m glad i saw the movie, but the whole thing really disappointed me. eternal bummer.
February 22nd, 2010 at 3:47 pm
Good review, but I have one question:
Where in the hell are you getting Yuengling north of Connecticut?
February 22nd, 2010 at 5:50 pm
@ Vidiot Great theory with Dances. I see no evidence to suggest otherwise.
@Mess, I was actually in NJ this weekend.
@jstack it does follow the book, but it wasn;t really a “dream.” It was roleplaying mixed with Teddy’s hallucinations. But I guess it can still be considered a cop-out.
February 22nd, 2010 at 8:02 pm
oh mars,
i know wasnt ACTUALLY a dream…i should have said it was a “dream.” my point is, the whole story line ended up being of little importance. it was just role-playing.