Shutter Island

While I was in Baton Rouge between Thursday and Friday, I saw Shutter Island and unfortunatley I didn't like it. Without revealing key aspects of the plot, I'll simply say that I found the film's twists and turns to be fairly predictable, and in the rare instances when the film did manage to surprise me, it did so only by going to incomprehensibly ridiculous lengths.

Overall, the narrative seemed like nothing more than an excuse for Scorcese to experiment in lushly stylized gothic horror. In that respect the film excells, but almost too much. Shutter Island replicates numerous gothic conventions--spooky mansions, dungeons, violent storms--and it does so with the highest degree of grotesque, atmospheric detail, but the film doesn't contribute anything new, so the impressive production value illicits little visceral emotion.

Considering the film's psycho-horror aspirations, it is surprisingly uninvolving. This is partially due to the frustratingly one-dimensional characterization of the main character, Teddy Daniels, played by Leonardo Dicaprio. As a federal marshall haunted not only by the death of his wife but also his memories of liberating the Dachau concentration camp in World War 2, this could have been a much more interesting character. Unfortunately, Leo does very little with Teddy other than constantly furrow his brow in either anger, confusion, or mere masculine intensity, and also just generally appear paranoid.