SHUTTER ISLAND

SHUTTER ISLAND

Martin Scorsese is one of the greatest directors ever; not just of his time. He is easily the best director for the last decade, two of his films, "The Departed" and "Gangs of New York" having placed in my top ten of the last ten years. Hes has been nominated six times for Oscars Best Director - "Raging Bull", "The Last Temptation of Christ", "Goodfellas", "The Age of Innocence", "The Gangs of Nw York", and "The Departed" - winning with "The Departed".

Scorsese has roved he can direct any type of film well from his trademark mafioso films (Goodfellas", Casino), period pieces ("Age of Innocence"), comedy ("The King of Comedy", "New York Stories"), music video/documentaries ("Michael Jackson's Bad", "Bob Dylan's No Direction Home", "Rolling Stone's Shine a Light") to docudramas ("Aviator") - there is no genre Scorsese hasn't excelled.

Moreover, Scorsese has proved he can work well with a wide range of talent. Though he is closely associated with Robert DeNiro (whom he hasn't worked with since 1995s "Casino"), he has several films with Harvey Keitel and lately with Leonardo DiCaprio. But he has worked with Michelle Pfeiffer, Danielle Day Lewis, Jerry Lewis, Cate Blanchett, Alan Alda, Nick Nolte, Jessica Lange, Don Rickles, James Woods, Joe Pesci, Cameron Diaz, Lian Nieson, Nick Cage, the late Paul Newman, Tom Cruise, Matt Damon and of course Jack Nicholson. Actors line up to work with Scorsese because success follows.

His latest venture "Shutter Island" is billed as a suspense thriller and stars his latest multifilm partner Leonardo DiCaprio. It was originally scheduled for release in October 2009 but was pushed back for unspecified reasons.

I mention this because for as long as I can remember Scorsese films were always released in time for Oscar consideration. This is a privilege studio afford certain directors and actors based on their entire body of work. So when Paramount pushed the release back to now - February, typically what I call "The crap time" - it gave me pause to wonder what was up?

Scuttlebutt then came out that the delay was due in part to the Screen Writers Guild strike a year ago and "Shutter Island" was part of that group of films that got delayed. Then that story went away and things got very quiet. This is never a good sign.

At the very least, "Shutter Island" is deeply flawed.

DiCaprio plays Teddy Daniels, a tough as nails US Marshal who has been assigned to investigate the disappearance of a psychotic patient named Rachel from Ashecliffe hospital, a high security mental hospital on an isolated island. At the very onset of the film the viewer is blasted with a dramatic score that seems totally inappropriate for the moment - I was half expecting Godzilla to pop up out of the water. In hind site that might have been a good idea.

The facility is run by Dr Cawly (Ben Kingsley) who coolly explains and justifies the what's and whys of the hospital. He doesn't seem in the least bit intimidated by the presence of the US Marshall. Daniels new partner, who he met on the ferry to the island, is Chuck (Mark Ruffalo). He's more of a lackey than a real partner, far too agreeable to do whatever Daniels says.

Thrown into the mix are a variety of characters like the Deputy Warden (John Carroll Lynch) who insists the Marshall's surrender their arms in a place where they will be surrounded by the worst of the criminally insane. Dr. Naehring (Max Von Sydow) who is the mysterious co-director of the facility.

We meet several of the staff and patients as they describe the missing Rachel and how no one knows how she disappeared. It becomes even stranger as one of the [patients instructs Daniels to run of the island. Indeed, there are several references that he and his partner would never be allowed to leave the facility. Kind of like The Eagle's Hotel California - "You can check in any time you like, but you may never leave."

But while on the island Daniels begins having massive headaches and flashbacks. The flashbacks are of his days liberating a Nazi Concentration camp, the atrocities he encountered, and his participation of a subsequent massacre of Nazis. But he also starts having hallucinations of his late wife, who died in a fire years ago, and a strange little girl who complains he could have saved her.

We learn that Daniels has a spotty past himself. Does the hospital know this and have plans to keep him? Which way is up? Is good bad? Scorsese challenges the audience to decide what is real and what is contrived. Is Daniels creating monsters of the id?

Scorsese crafts a very interesting tale of intrigue; one that looks vaguely similar to Hitchcock's "Vertigo". We get glimpses of Scorsese's genius with the repartee between DiCaprio and von Sydow when they first meet. When we first see von Sydow, we can't help but think of Sir Laurence Olivier's role as the dentist in "Marathon Man". You can literally envision him as a creepy Nazi surgeon. But then the pacing slows to a drag. So much so I dowsed for a couple of minutes - and still didn't miss anything!

"Shutter Island" clearly is not what we are accustomed to from Scorsese. Some say it is homage to Hitchcock; maybe. But Scorsese is great enough he has only one person he could pay homage to and that is himself. "Shutter Island" is technically fine, marvelously cast, has an interesting storyline, and decent acting. It's one shortcoming is the one thing of which the director is completely in charge...the pace. --GEOFFREY BURTON

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