The Daily Davis

Just a quick spoiler-free review I threw together, not a prompt, but it is some writing I did today. I’ll probably do a more detailed analysis of the movie later, that will contain spoilers, of course.

I admit I came into Shutter Island already banking on it being a great movie. Martin Scorsese is one of those living legends, responsible for some of the most amazing movies out there. Guaranteed strong performances by Leo DiCaprio and Ben Kingsley only furthered my expectations. To my surprise, it was a fun movie that contained some rather major flaws. Despite these flaws, I was amused and find a lot of merit in the film. While this movie will never be considered one of those truly legendary films, I expect it to be one that I will watch again and again throughout the rest of my life. Rather than dwell on some of the problems I found with the movie, mostly in structure and story, I would like to focus on what impressed me so much.

The initial draw to the movie for me, aside from the track records of those involved, was the very pulpy nature of the trailers. I am a sucker for a genre picture, and even more so for those dark, gritty stories that feel like that pop out of a 20s dime magazine. I devour these like candy, and to have so many renowned people playing to my interests naturally had an undeniable draw. This trailers had everything that I never knew I wanted in a simple movie: an asylum, secret sinister experiments, beautiful shots, and the aspects of a period-piece. On these qualities, the film succeeded remarkably, and then some.

The asylum looks amazing. The fact it is located on it’s own island creates an incredible sense of unease the moment you see it appear through the fog within the first few moments of the story. The island itself becomes a character through it’s layout and weather, when certain elements reflect the underlying paranoia. The lighthouse, the hurricane, the rats, and the suicide rock all add to the growing paranoia of US. Marshal Teddy Daniels (Leonardo DiCaprio). When a set becomes a character, rather than a background, you know you have accomplished something, because then nearly every aspect of the film contributes to the overall point.

As far as the plot, while there are some issues, and the twist is fairly clear rather early on in the movie, it was still enjoyable. Much like one can enjoy a story they have seen before. The destination is not as important as the ride. The ride, in this case, is almost entirely the point of the film. There is only so much I can discuss concerning the plot, as I do not wish to spoil the film, but the narrative does fall apart as Teddy follows different threads. These shifts of focus make sense considering where the story is going, the structural decay of the story echoes the decay of a specific character’s sanity. But this ultimately disrupts the film at points, leading to an ending where the points are just addressed at once rather than resolving naturally. I do not want to use the term dues ex machina, but it feels quite a bit like that. Rather than emphasizing these connections, the film just comes out and says “by the way…”. I’d like to read the book to see if the shifting foci work like how I expect they would in a literary form.

Overall, the film is beautiful and touches up on some really cool things (secret Nazi-Communist mind-experiments, anyone?), but some issues with plot hamper things a bit. It’s definitely worth a watch, as you’ll recognize a lot of faces, amongst whom include Jackie Earl Haley and Max Von Sydow. The film brings in so much cool stuff together into one package. The only thing missing was a story that flowed well.