Shutter Island

Aslinn Dhan March 2nd 2010, 7:22 pm

I will be going to see this tomorrow and I will write a critique afterwards

Aslinn Dhan March 3rd 2010, 4:59 pm

Save your money Trubies, this movie, though filled with excellent cinematography, a suitably creepy locale and a wonderful job by Leonardo DiCaprio, is a rental at best.

Set in 1958, DiCaprio is a Marshall sent to investigate an escape of a woman who is in a facility for the criminally insane. She is there for drowning her children. DiCaprio is working out his own demons, having been a part of the liberators of Auschwitz, and is a widower who's wife was killed in a fire in their apartment building.

Add any number of conspiracy theories of the times: The House UnAmericans Committee, the Atomic Bomb, and the first suggestions of psychological experiments and the presence of Nazis who may have been involved in experiments on the Jews and you have Conspiracy Theory meets Jacob's Ladder, meets Identity, meets any Oliver Stone film. Scorsese has made a mess of what could have been a really great thriller.

And perhaps that is what he meant to do to give you an unsure, unbalanced feeling, unable to say who is who and what is what in the story. It meanders and sometimes gets caught in the mire. And the twist is understood early on.

Instead, rent Identity from Netflicks and watch it in the comfort of your own home. But if you like DiCaprio, go ahead and see it for his stellar performance. He does an excellent job with a poorly manufactured and over contrived story.