This may be Martin Scorsese’s foray into the terrain, usually lorded over, by Michel Gondry, Spike Jonez, and Christopher Nolan. “Shutter Island” fuses the quick cuts, the splattering blood, the blood congealed around dead bodies, the rapid camera movements back and forth, into a psychological narrative, reminiscent of Charlie Kaufman’s work.
It’s my strong view that, if hindsight was accessible through an app on our web browsers, Soderbergh should have looked at the ending of this film to bring about the twist and ending in “The Informant” with the development and wrap up of Mark Whitacre’s fate. I couldn’t help but juxtapose the final conversation between Dr. Cawley, Dr. Leehan, and Andrew, with the conversation between Mark Whitacre, Mark Shephard, and Whitacre’s wife. Scorsese’s handling is masterful yet complete; it hits us and suddenly realize the world in which we have been for the last 2 hours. DiCaprio shines in this role, comfortably wading between the hard-ass, the resolute, the reminiscent, and the extremely vulnerable. With “Inception” and “Shutter Island” behind him, DiCaprio shows us that he can traverse the terrains of psychological horror and thriller just as much as John Malkovich or Heath Ledger.
Beautiful, striking, and measured photography. A lot of DiCaprio’s dream sequences seem to be Freudian dream interpretations down to the last tittle. And watch out for the Dinah Washington epic number in the credits; you won’t miss it if you pay attention.
