- Critic rating
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Currently
4/5 Stars.
Movies.ie Critic Review
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.
Review by Paul Byrne