 "Photo: Paramount Pictures")
In “Shutter Island,” Leondardo DiCaprio spends much of his time scowling. He scowls at women, prison buildings and clothes. He spends so much time scowling, the film should instead be titled “Scowl Island.” Unfortunately “Scowl Island” can only exist in the form of an audience member watching Martin Scorsese’s latest effort in “Shutter Island.”
Set in the 1950s, the story centers around a mental hospital for psychotic criminals. The facility is located on an island. When a patient goes missing, U.S. Marshals Teddy Daniels (Leondardo DiCaprio) and his new partner Chuck Aule (Mark Ruffalo) arrive to investigate. DiCaprio’s Teddy constantly smokes, is temperamental and suffers from migraines. Ruffalo’s Chuck smokes and is an amiable detective who suffers from being partnered with Teddy.
Their arrival on the island is welcomed but their investigation is limited. A series of incidents leads the pair to believe their investigation is being slowly obstructed by an orchestrated conspiracy. Teddy believes there is a massive cover up concerning psychological experiments.
During course of the film, Teddy succumbs to hallucinations of his time as an Allied soldier liberating a concentration camp from Nazi control. These series of flashbacks reveal a complicated hero who is troubled by the cruelty of wartime experiments. Teddy never lets the past go, as is exhibited by his sense of guilt for the atrocities he has seen.
There is a sense of dread upon entering the Shutter Island facility. The buildings are large, they appear ghostly and near demonic. One building is mentioned to have been repurposed from an old Civil War base. The theme of trauma is constantly being imparted by the film’s dialogue and narrative. The criminally insane on the island are there because of trauma. The protagonists are there to resolve them.
Martin Scorsese channels a little Alfred Hitchcock suspense. Scenes are slow, the camera settles on characters and the areas DiCaprio’s Teddy travels in are haunting. The island appears dangerous, because Teddy has not only the conspiracy of the island to contend with but also it’s terrain and weather. The musical score provides the most tangible sense of horror.
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