SHUTTER ISLAND (USA/15A/138mins)
Directed by Martin Scorsese. Starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Mark Ruffalo, Ben Kingsley, Max von Sydow, Michelle Williams, Emily Mortimer.
THE PLOT: In this 1950s-set mystery thriller, DiCaprio plays tormented detective Teddy Daniels, trying to uncover the whereabouts of a missing inmate at a remote island asylum. With his new partner, Chuck (Ruffalo), by his side, Teddy quickly becomes convinced of a conspiracy, his slowly escalating paranoia not helped by flashbacks, both to his time as a US Marine walking through corpses as they liberated Dachau, and of his late wife (Williams), mother to their three tragically deceased young children. The biblical storm unfolding outside only adds to the confusion, ensuring the duo's confinement on the island.
THE VERDICT: Scorsese has a huge amount of fun sending his audience down dark alleys and spooky dead ends here, but the real game for this noted film buff is playing hide and seek with cinema history.
For anyone who cares to look, there are nods to classic thrillers and chillers all the way through Shutter Island, from the opening nod to RKO's 1943 classic The Ghost Ship to the sly casting of Robert De Niro lookalike Elias Koteas as a grinning loon that could so easily be Travis Bickle thirty five years later. In the nuthouse. Where he belongs.
The abstract jabs of ominous orchestral works (sourced by the director's old roommate, The Band's Robbie Robertson), the sharp camera angles and jolt edits all add up to a masterclass in filmmaking the old-fashioned way.
Ultimately, it might just be a little bit too much style, and loaded content, for the average Joe, but the cheap thrills are there too. RATING: ****
GREEN ZONE (France/USA/Spain/UK/15A/115mins)
Directed by Paul Greengrass. Starring Matt Damon, Yigal Naor, Said Faraj, Nicoye Banks, Sean Huze.
THE PLOT: Something of a companion piece to Greengrass' brilliant United 93 - which charted the story of United Flight 93, one of the planes hijacked on September 11th -Damon plays Army Chief Warrant officer Roy Miller, arriving in Baghdad along with a big chunk of the US military to, you know, finds those weapons of mass destruction, kick Saddam Hussein's ass, and have Osama Bin Laden running to them in flight, preferably with arms wailing and white flag flapping. Only, Miller and his friends quickly realised they have a much bigger fight on their hands than anticipated. For now though, this is turning into a one-man mission to find those WMDs...
THE VERDICT: ...and that gives Greengrass the opportunity to do his trademark frenetic, wibbly-wobbly wonder quick-edit onslaught, as Miller finds himself regularly going mano-o-many-manos.
It's a cinematic style that reflects the madness on the ground in Baghdad at that time, but surprisingly, this is where Green Zone starts to feel conventional. Not Rambo conventional, but certainly you begin to feel as though this is simply Bourne in a uniform. Rather than an attack on the Iraqi war.
Which, given that Greengrass and writer Brian Hegeland were 'inspired by' (as the credits put it) Rajiv Chandrasekaran's damning bookImperial Life In The Emerald City - the Washington Post war reporter bluntly ridiculing the American effort in Iraq - feels more than a little disappointing. RATING: ***
I LOVE YOU PHILLIP MORRIS (France/USA/16/102mins)
Directed by Glenn Ficarra, John Requa. Starring Jim Carrey, Ewan McGregor, Leslie Mann, Rodrigo Santoro, Nicholas Alexander.
THE PLOT: Proceedings start off promisingly, as we're given a quick spin through the early years of Steven Russell (Carrey), a model son who does everything his parents ask of him, going on to become a Georgia policeman, the church organist, and the father of two lovely kids with the sweet Debbie (Mann). When Steven goes in search of his real mum, using police records, her second rejection is the spark to a new life though. Steven is tired of living a lie, and he's soon on his way to becoming an expert conman, and living the flamboyant gay life in Miami. Where he meets Phillip (McGregor).
THE VERDICT: This time last year, it looked like Carrey and McGregor might have one of 2009's most talked about movies on their hands, but then again, the latter has a habit of turning wine into water, no matter what kind of movie he touches.
Based on a true story, and directed by the duo who gave us the cool-to-be-crass Bad Santa, like that Billy Bob Thornton vehicle, I Love You Phillip Morris lacks heart. And tries way too hard. And it stars Ewan McGregor. RATING: **
THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATOO (Sweden/Denmark/Germany/18/152mins) Directed by Niels Arden Oplev. Starring Michael Nyqvist, Noomi Rapace, Lena Endre, Peter Haber.
THE PLOT: The story follows the title's young rebel, Lisbeth Salander (Rapace), a 24-year old pierced and tatooed private detective who hooks up with struggling journalist Mikael Blomkvist (Nyqvist) after they realise they are both investigating the same cold murder case.
THE VERDICT: Having sold over ten million copies in the last four years, the first of the late Swedish writer Steig Larsson's Millenium trilogy naturally made a killing at the Scandavian box-office early last year. It's unlikely to do the same elsewhere though, given the flat if faithful adaptation here. All the nuances and the Sweden-is-corrupt stuff is gone. In its place, a solid if unremarkable whodunit. RATING: **
DID SOMEONE SAY CAKE?
If you happen to be anywhere near The Curragh in Kildare over the coming week, Cake Contemporary Arts will be running a number of screenings of Dublin's Still Films' productions.
Running until March 19th, features include the IFTA-winning documentary Seaview, plus a series of shorts, including documentaries Alibiand Rialto Twirlers, and the animated Untitled (Revolution '89). Check out cakecontemporaryarts.com for full details.