Review by Gary Tooze

Production:

Disc:

Video:

Audio:

• Featurette: Behind the Shutters (17:11 in HD!)
• Featurette: Into the Lighthouse (21:11 in HD!)

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Description: Martin Scorsese puts Leonardo DiCaprio through the wringer again in Shutter Island, a gothic adaptation of Dennis Lehane's novel. Leo's character, a Federal Marshal named Teddy Daniels, is first seen vomiting and jittery aboard a ferry; he and his new partner (Mark Ruffalo) are being taken across the water to investigate an escape from a prison for the criminally insane, located on a forbidding rock called Shutter Island. From the first, Scorsese treats the place as though it were Skull Island in King Kong, worthy of ominous music cues and portentous camera angles. This might not be an easy assignment for the sweaty, anxious Daniels, who is haunted by his memories of German concentration camps and the loss of his wife (Michelle Williams, appearing in ghostly hallucinations).

It's 1954, and up-and-coming U.S. marshal Teddy Daniels is assigned to investigate the disappearance of a patient from Boston's Shutter Island Ashecliffe Hospital. He's been pushing for an assignment on the island for personal reasons, but before long he wonders whether he hasn't been brought there as part of a twisted plot by hospital doctors whose radical treatments range from unethical to illegal to downright sinister. Teddy's shrewd investigating skills soon provide a promising lead, but the hospital refuses him access to records he suspects would break the case wide open. As a hurricane cuts off communication with the mainland, more dangerous criminals "escape" in the confusion, and the puzzling, improbable clues multiply, Teddy begins to doubt everything - his memory, his partner, even his own sanity.

 

 

Audio :

Unfortunately no commentary but this may be a film that stands better by itself than an endless discussion of themes and narrative assessment. There are two featurettes: Behind the Shutters and Into the Lighthouse running almost 40-minutes in total. These lean to production pieces with the principals giving soundbytes. No bad stuff actually. I'll admit I really would have enjoyed a commentary and there are no BD-LIVE bells and whistles that I could ascertain. So, surprisingly skimpy for such a high profile film.

BOTTOM LINE:
I am little baffled by the critical indifference to Shutter Island. I believe I watched a totally masterful and visionary piece of filmmaking. I can only assume that some viewers didn't embrace the topic (there are harsh moments, on multiple fronts, for those more sensitive) but I was never under any constraints to complain about the length and DiCaprio, Ruffalo, Kingsley - were all magnificent, the atmospheric cinematography, the abundant style, the indefinable 'Scorsese' touches - add up to a mesmerizing presentation.  In my second viewing I identified many more of the incongruous segments as being totally intentional - veering us to, and supporting, the riveting climax. I'm tired of the 'Noir' talk with Shutter Island - there isn't that much here to help define it as classically related to the black cinema style simply because of the time frame it is set. The Blu-ray A/V is flawless (a tiresome word, I know, in reviewing HD) - extras were more limited than I would have anticipated but this is another in the director's line of enduring cinema - he continues to raise the bar. Few directors make films this... hypnotic. This has our highest recommendation. You will get repeat viewings out of this disc!