You gotta love that Leonardo DiCaprio is Director, Martin Scorsese’s new Robert DeNiro for this generation. They’ve teamed for The Departed, The Aviator, Gangs of New York and now Shutter Island – pushed back from its original fall of 2009 release. That ain’t good. This time Scorsese takes more of a Cape Fearapproach to deliver a film that feels a bit like Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining. It’s Boston Harbor, 1954 (and let it be said right now, that from one Bostonian to another, DiCaprio has the Boston accent down solid). It’s a twisty sort of mysterious Hitchcockish film, based on the Denis LeHane novel about two Federal Marshalls, Teddy Daniels (DiCaprio) and Chuck Aule (Mark Rufalo) – who ferry to a mysterious island in Boston harbor in order to investigate the strange disappearance of a murderess under grey thunderous skies and plank mists…..spooky. Upon arrival everything is “protocol” and moreso frustrating, until the detective-duo find a clue on a note paper that reads “The law of 4. Who is 67?” Ben Kinglsey plays Dr. Cawley the quintessential psychiatrist – in control, chilly and with a trick of two up his sleeve. It’s clear something else is going on aside from the missing woman. Meticulously shot like the 1950s it takes place in, the film is beautiful to look at and completely engaging from the start, but something is missing. And again, it ain’t just that crazy woman. DiCaprio is a solid actor but this isn’t a very interesting character. And the fact that one spends more time wishing they could pull that little wilted bandage strip off Leo’s forehead shows there’s too much time spent on something other than the plot. The movie weaves in shots from concentration camps along with a blonde ghost named Dolores (Michelle Williams) who spends her time calling DiCaprio “Honey” and ordering him around in her floral yellow dress. The story holds you in your seat but never actually grips you, so much of its two hours and twenty minutes in length, that you begin to feel like maybe you’re being as sedated as the looney tunes on screen. When the twist is finally revealed at about a half hour before the movie ends, its interesting to find that nothing is ever quite resolved but at the same time – and in the confines of a looney bin – maybe it shouldn’t be. Two tiaras
