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Wednesday, March 24, 2010

[7.25/10] Shutter Island (2010)


Shutter Island (2010)

"Shutter Island" is a movie with Martin Scorsese signature all over it. How fantastic direction can made ordinary plot interesting is the highlight of movie? Nice camera movement, shadow photography and capable cast selection made this one worth watching. Despite the brilliant atmosphere which Scorsese and his cinematographer Richardson cook-up, the films narrative lacks the essence of a Scorsese film and a Lehane novel. At times the extended sequences seem to be dragging the film out, for the sake of dragging it out rather than extending our knowledge of the on-screen surroundings. While DiCaprio is continually on-screen for almost two hours, and during this time his performance starts to wear thin. Which is a consequence of the fact that despite the subtle and quite well refined performances by Ruffalo, Kingsley, Lynch, Levine and Williams, nobody steps forth and offers DiCaprio a supporting hand and because of this, by the end of the film it seems as if he utilizing every last acting bone in his body to complete the film. Director Martin Scorsese also seem to have a hard time trying to build up suspense, especially towards the end. The dream sequences were annoying at times and a bit overdone. Overall, "Shutter Island" does a competent job of building the apparently normal, but 'you-know-something-is-going-on' atmosphere. However, it quickly goes downhill, and like DiCaprio's character, I was also searching for a way to abandon the island at the half-way point. It picks up again in the second half, but just around the point where you think it's going to get interesting, you realise you've seen it all before. That said, even though the dénouement is predictable, it's done well enough to stick with to the end.

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