Haven’t written in awhile, but haven’t seen new films in awhile. I’ll be packing them in before the Oscars, and will post a checklist in a short while with what I’ve seen and what I haven’t, with thoughts about the nominees. Below is my review for the new psychological mind blower that is “Shutter Island. Spoiler-free, as always, especially with something this complex.

“Someone is missing.”

That’s the tagline of “Shutter Island”, the fourth and latest collaboration between legendary director Martin Scorsese and his current muse, Leonardo DiCaprio. But it also could represent the acknowledgement that there’s a sizeable hole in the landscape of modern commercial filmmaking—we’re missing someone who is at the top of his game and is still willing to take chances with films that play in the realm of the psychological. A realm where the monsters aren’t CGI or otherworldly, and instead are very much products of the lives we live. Alfred Hitchcock never had a problem seizing (and in some ways creating) this mantle and wearing it as a badge of honor, even as his now-lauded masterpieces of the psychological like “Vertigo” were panned on release. In “Shutter Island”, Scorsese grabs that mantle and dances around with it on his head proudly and unabashedly. And it’s one hell of a thing to behold.

Now, sure, there are those who question whether Scorsese is actually currently at the top of his game, considering his last film (and now this one) represents his commercial, but perhaps not creative, pinnacle. But that ignores the fact that he’s coming off his only Best Director Oscar winner in “The Departed”, and those who are quick to criticize Scorsese are slow to come up with a living filmmaker whose canon can match up with his, punch for bloody punch, shot for bloody shot. He’s steeped in Americana, hell, he IS Americana. He is legend. At this point we’re just witnessing a historical legacy continually being built and shaped. To question the power of his latest works in comparison to others is the wrong way to look at it. Pete Rose’s 3000^th and 4000^th hits may not have been struck as sharply as his 1000^th and 2000^th, but they’re arguably more important in his legacy. And Scorsese is far from taking victory laps. He’s doing some of the most taut and entertaining work of his career right now at age 67. We’d all do well to sit back and enjoy history being replayed and made at the same time in front of our very eyes.

In “The Departed” Scorsese and DiCaprio started down a path exploring individualized madness. The longer DiCaprio’s police character was undercover, the more he wore it on his face, and the more it showed up in his actions. His tormented performance scored him myriad nominations and awards, but in the film it was his cool demeanor and clear-headedness that won out over the demons his character tempted throughout. If “The Departed” tenuously tempted these demons, and explored these paths of madness, “Shutter Island” builds a fortress at the end of them and invites and traps the demons inside. 

Yes, “Someone is missing”. But at Shutter Island, a mid 1950’s mental hospital for the criminally insane, a lot of someones are missing. Walking ghosts who have been lobotomized into near-zombie state tend the eerily-lovely gardens. Everyone is on edge. Doom and gloom loom over every interaction and the foreboding sense of coming darkness is as palpable as has been seen on film since David Lynch’s “Blue Velvet” marvelously panned below the surface of small town America to show the infestations lurking just below.

And yes, someone in particular is missing, the most dangerous patient on the island in fact. The patient seemingly has run of the entire island until they can be brought in, and this situation seems to be worrying the main characters more than anyone. These two main characters, played by DiCaprio and Mark Ruffalo, are US Marshalls charged with securing the patient. But they very quickly discern that the people they may need to be most worried about securing are themselves. There’s only one good way on and off Shutter Island, and once a hurricane hits, there’s no good way on or off the Island. But maybe there never was. We begin to shuffle and trudge down the paths of madness with these characters, then we dash down them, get lost, and begin to honestly question where we are and how we got there. Then there’s a lighthouse at the end of the tunnel, but should we trust it? Is it a trap? Will it just crash us into the rocks instead of steering us away? This is a film that swirls you (and the characters) in circles until you’re falling over and grasping at anything to steady yourself. And what you find yourself holding may end up being a worse consequence than falling down would’ve been.

Pull it together Teddy

The casting and acting are inspired, most notably Ben Kingsley as the sheep, or possibly wolf, in sheep’s clothing as the Island’s principal psychiatric doctor. Some ulterior motive, one with fangs, seems to be lurking just inside his Cheshire smile. He pulls us through the film’s twists and turns with just the right amounts of every emotion he needs to supply in each interaction to create the desired impact. Really, it’s a command performance. But it doesn’t overshadow absolutely excellent work from DiCaprio. DiCaprio really is nearly in a league of his own in terms of young actors who can carry such a complex leading role throughout such a twisted tale. If this is Scorsese’s 4000^th hit in a legendary career, it well could be the 1000^th for DiCaprio on the same path. We’re watching him build his legacy with every project he undertakes, and to do so in conjunction with the legacy of Scorsese is pure joy. Scorsese is steeped in cinematic tradition, so steeped he’s now a major part of it. DiCaprio is weaving on the same loom; they’re working their threads into the same tapestry.

But it’s not just Kingsley and DiCaprio. The film also soars due to the always fascinatingly-edgy Ted Levine, and the ever-creepy Max Von Sydow. In Levine you have one of film’s most legendary serial killers (Buffalo Bill in “Silence of the Lambs”.) In Von Sydow you have a man who has both played the devil (“Needful Things”) and faced down with death in a legendary game of chess (“The Seventh Seal”.) When it comes to atmosphere, just having these guys around amps up the creepy scale by powers of ten.

The Classic Platinum Blonde. Kim Novak anyone?

There’s also as many perfectly icy (in some cases soaking wet and/or frozen) femme fatales (Michelle Williams, Emily Mortimer, Patricia Clarkson) as you can shake a stick at.  And the patients we do get extended talks with (including Jackie Earl Haley and a couple of perfect lesser known actors) seem straight out of central casting if central casting were filled only with mental patients.  Everyone in the cast nails the pitch and tenor of their performances. Of course, they’re working with someone who managed to get something great out of Sharon Stone in “Casino” and Tom Sizemore in “Bringing Out The Dead” so it’s to be expected. Still, enough can’t be said about the cast and casting.

The only thing left to talk about is the direction. Scorsese here helms a film that does what he does so well, which is echo great moments and directors in film history. Scorsese is so deft, where others mimic and repeat, he merely echoes. So that his work is both of the ages and for the ages. We’re talking echoes of Hitchcock’s greatest hits here, with moments in “Shutter Island” that resound from “Vertigo”, “North By Northwest”, “Psycho”, “Spellbound”, “Rope”, “Lifeboat”, and “Rebecca” among others. But the film also sounds at times of noir and neo-noir like “Chinatown”, as well as psychological horror like “The Cabinet of Doctor Calagari” and “Carnival of Souls”, and character drama like “The Red Shoes.” This is cinematic music, orchestrated with familiar notes, but also wholly original. It’s fascinating to experience on so many levels.

It would be tragic to spoil where this film gets, or any details about how it gets there, so while praise is easy, criticism is difficult. Minor quibbles can be made with the film’s editing (a lot of sloppy mistakes here being excused as style), and certainly stylistic choices were made to tell the story in a certain way. Not all of them work perfectly. But all of them create a sense of confusion and dizziness. A swimming in the head. Vertigo in the mold of “Vertigo”, with a story just as twisted. The end effect is a film that works, even if you know the outcome, but especially if you don’t. It begs to be seen multiple times.

As said earlier, the film is a spiraling helter skelter slide of an amusement. It’s a fantastic adaptation of an excellent book by Dennis Lehane, and screenwriter Laeta Kalogridis’ adaptation skillfully delves further into the psyche of America in a budding cold war with Communism than Lehane’s book did. The House Un-American Activities Committee rears its ugly head. The specter of the red boogeyman lurks around the corners and within the files, just as the memories of the Nazis haunt and affect DiCaprio. This is a film about a patient on the loose at a mental hospital for criminals, but in true Hitchcockian fashion, there’s a significant MacGuffin (or two) in the story. It’s about a lot more than it seems.

Someone is missing.

9/10

(make plans to see this asap, don’t be spoiled)