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.

Pro-Tip: Swear words make you a good writer.

It was 2 in the morning when the body was finally found. Some poor schlub was coming down the hotel lobby from one of those swank rooftop parties and stumbled on a person curled up in the hallway. Being drunk, he tapped at the person’s back with his foot, telling him to get out of the way. He, remarkably, did not notice the blood pooling on the floor under the body. The drunk party-goer shrugged and stepped over the curled up corpse and proceeded to wander to his room.

It was about 6 in the morning when someone actually realized the curled up person was dead. Even worse, the deceased was one of those pop-stars.

Bart stepped into the hotel, hands firmly entrenched in his coat. Though the hotel was warmer than the bitter cold outside, he refused to remove his hands from the safety of the pockets. He peered around for a Blue to fill him in on the deal.

As soon as he made a passing glance to his left, a Blue approached hurried and huffed to his right.

“Detective Blair?”

Bart turned his head to the Blue. He hated being confused with his partner.

“Blair is running late. This is Bart.”

“Oh, I’m so sorry Detective Bart.”

Bart resisted the temptation to make a deal of it.

“S’fine. What are we needing here?”

The Blue motioned to Bart to approach the elevator.

“About 0600 this morning a maintenance man stumbled on the body of Cecil Williams-“

“Name sounds familiar. Why?”

The Blue balked at the question. “Williams had the stage-name Lonchre.”

The elevator makes a noise and the door opens, and the pair step out, stepping around a rush of hotel-patrons wanting to leave.

“No shit? That popstar? The guy who was posing as a woman for all those years?”

“Yeah.”

“Shit, shit. Can’t believe I didn’t know that, I had a few of her- well, his- albums.”

The Blue looked very amused. He was going to make a comment about this gruff detective and his choice in music, but decided against it as he saw the detective’s grim face at the revelation as musician he liked was now lying dead in a hotel hallway.

The rest of the walk was silent, all two corners of it. They arrived at the crimescene, where forensics were already hard at work.

The Blue stepped into the hotel room behind the crime-scene while Detective Bart stood and watched the scene. The body was on a stretcher now, covered. Bart wondered what Lonchre looked like without all the glam. Probably not that great considering the amount of blood on the floor.

“You librarians better not fuck up my crime-scene.”

One of the forensics looked up at Bart and grimaced. She spoke in a fluttery tone. Incapable of sounding the lease bit annoyed.

“Christ, they had to send you?”

Bart looked at the source of the snark, and was pleased to see the round, pink face of Susan.

“Hey there Sus. What have you saved for me?”

“Quite a bit, actually. Pretty sure if this was a murder, it was the sloppiest goddamn one I have ever seen.”

Bart’s interest piqued, “Really now?”

Susan stood up, holding a variety of sample bags.

Found a weapon we’re dusting for prints, and it looks like there was some hair under the victim’s fingernails.

Bart finally took a hand out of his coat pocket to pull out a stick of gum from another on his pants. “Couldn’t it have just been a suicide?”

Susan placed some bags in a box. “We’re not ruling that out, but the wound does not strike me as a suicide wound. It’s pretty sloppy and feels like something out of an execution. Long range.”

“Guess that’s why I’m here then.”

“Guess so.”

A call from the room. “Bart, get your ass in here.”

“Sorry Sus, looks like they’re singing my tune.” He made his way to the door, but stopped when Susan began to speak.

“Hey, Bart. How’s your partner?”

Bart scratched at his scruffy chin with his thumb and forefinger. “Well enough to come back to the force today.”

He stepped into the hotel room. One more body in an already too-crowded space.

The chief was there. This was going to be a huge priority case, so this wasn’t shocking.

“Shouldn’t you be sitting behind a desk, sir?”

“Jesus Christ. I’m trying to keep the circus going up here, and you’re downstairs asking my Blues about the situation, where anyone could hear?!”

“Technically, it was the Blues’ fault. He knows the rules.”

“No time for jokes, Bart. This is a big fucking deal.”

“A pop-star got killed. Not even sure if it was a murder or not, what makes this such a damn priority?”

The chief stalked over to Bart, getting right in his face, his breath was hot and sour, and the words were wet and they came flying out of his mouth.

“WE’RE DEALING WITH A MAJOR PLAYER AND THE INEVITABLE MEDIA CLUSTERFUCK AND YOU’RE ASKING WHY THIS IS A BIG DEAL?”