I know that I am overly critical of Leonardo DiCaprio - that is kind of one of my "things." I feel as though he is over-rated as an actor and doesn't deserve a great deal of the praise that he gets. I believe that most of the films he is in are good in spite of him, rather than because of him. I believe that every DiCaprio film would be a little bit better if they were Matt Damon movies. That being said, I don't think that Shutter Island's failure to impress me was his fault.
Ok, right out of the gate I am going to admit that this was a massive financial success. That was always going to be the case when Scorsese teams up with DiCaprio. Add to the fact that Mark Ruffalo (one of my favorite actors) and Ben Kingsley (I believe one of the most talented actors of all time) are also in the movie and it kind of had to succeed, right?
DiCaprio plays Edward "Teddy" Daniels, a U.S. Marshal that is investigating the disappearance of a patient who was incarcerated at a mental hospital for drowning her 3 children. He is teamed up on this investigation with a partner he has never worked with before who is played by Mark Ruffalo.
The movie starts out interesting enough because what isn't interesting about visiting a super-secure mental hospital that houses the criminally insane on an island? That is creepy enough on its own but the way the scenes are shot add to the dread as does the choice of music and sound.
and of course there is always this lady.
I applaud the fact that this film tried to steer away from the annoying predictable nature of Hollywood movies and instead opted for a massive "twist" that would leave the audience shocked. This is what I enjoy about Korean movies and would like to see the tactic employed more frequently in US films. However, the execution of this twist was done very poorly.
Myself and many other people I know were able to predict what was really going on in the film long before the audience is meant to. I don't remember exactly what it was that tipped us all off but I knew well before it was revealed what was really going on and then when the moment came that was supposed to be shocking I was like "you don't say???" It wasn't surprising and the tells were not subtle enough (I am intentionally being vague here so as to not spoil the film for people that have not seent it.)
I've said it before and I'll say it again. Leo is not a convincing father character. He is just too boyish to be playing the role of someone who is a doting dad to 3 kids. He also is not terribly convincing as an authority figure such as a police detective or US Marshall - he simply isn't intimidating. It's like a little kid dressing up for Halloween for the most part. While I will admit that the has some very good roles under his belt, the ones where I am supposed to believe that he is an adult with kids are the ones where my reaction is "No, you're NOT!"
While I wont totally bag on this film I simply didn't think it was great. I found myself quite bored while watching it and the fact that the big twist was telegraphed so early on in the film totally ruined it for me. If you haven't seen this one I would say you can pretty safely skip it and all will be well in the world.