SHUTTER ISLAND (USA 2009) ***
Directed by Martin Scorsese

Finally released after a long postponement from fall in its opening date, the new Martin Scorsese suspense thriller is not as bad as most critics fear.  In fact SHUTTER ISLAND is a very intense, captivating though flawed work.

Though the only other thriller Scorsese has directed is the over-the-top CAPE FEAR, SHUTTER ISLAND has more in common with his latest Oscar winner THE DEPARTED.  Both films share a complicated story-line with major mind f***s and ambiguous characters.

SHUTTER ISLAND is set in the 50’s.  From the film’s first minute when the two main characters Teddy Daniels (Leonardi DiCaprio) and Chuck Aule (Mark Ruffalo) arrive on SHUTTER ISLAND, a high security mental penitentiary to be given show around, Scorsese sets the tense tone of his film.  From the music, dialogue, body language and pace of the film, this tone is maintained throughout.  Scorsese relents a bit with a bit of parody with Teddy questioning on why everything is so uptight, to which the answer is: “It always is here like this!”

For a 140 minute film, Scorsese’s film flies fast.  Reason is that the story has many twists and turns to keep the audience genuinely excited with sufficient cinematic distractions like segments allowing the actors - DiCarpio offering a monologue or debate with the warden (Ted Levine) on violence- to strut their stuff.  Scorsese’s film feels at time like Hitchcock’s VERTIGO, especially when the secret of the island deals with the lighthouse, comparable to the bell tower in VERTIGO.

Despite the 50’s setting, some of the film’s dialogue, like the swearing is more current.  Also a problem with a film telling a story as opposed to a book, is the fact that the audience takes a segment to be true whenever it (the segment) appears on the screen.  In one scene, an inmate grabs Teddy’s book to scribble the word ‘RUN’ on a page.  The audience would assume that this incident actually took place and not imagined, thus causing the difficulty if the director wishes this occurrence to be in Teddy’s imagination.  A similar uneasiness arises when Dr. Naehring (Max Von Sydow) is put to sleep by Teddy and re-appears later on as if nothing happened.

But the novel by Dennis Lehane (GONE BABY GONE, MYSTIC RIVER) contains enough suspenseful elements – a hurricane trapping everyone on the island; an unreachable lighthouse - to keep audiences satisfied throughout the film.  The subject of brainwashing, touched upon in films like the memorable MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE is always intriguing fodder.

Though the audience knows exactly where the film is leading to two thirds down the film’s running time, Scorsese’s flawed film has already won his audience over in terms of suspense, thrills and yes, mind f***s.