Shutter Island (and the Unhinged Goofy)

I'm back - surprise! But why? Why did I come back to this blog?! Well, I finally got bored of not being able to put my feelings about some films in words... Yeah, that sentence sucked, but you get it. Well, one of these films I couldn't describe properly was Shutter Island (dir. Martin Scorsese).

First of all, let me say that I enjoyed this film. I really did. In spite of everything about this that was wrong! Seriously, let's look at this way: the plot twist? Predictable. The score? Over the top. The cinematography? Over the top. The acting? Over the top... You get the idea. The whole thing feels blown out of proportion from the start. They approach the island, nothing is happening, and all of the sudden you get this epic, "DUH DUH DUUUUUUH!" from an entire orchestra. What. The. Hell? It's very obvious then and there that this movie is going to be a bit... well, a bit comical, really.

Then you've got this acting... I think the only performance that's tame in this movie comes from Ben Kingsley (and Mark Ruffalo, except for this one awesome scene, but never mind you that). let me say this: this film is 90% Leonardo DiCaprio. He does it all in this film: rage, scratch a pencil into paper to piss someone off, and of course, "NOOOOOOO!" I can't believe how overblown his performance is. It's fucking awesome! It's like Scorsese laced his food with cocaine and filmed it. He's flipping out every damn scene.

So wait! I'm on to something - Scorsese... He filmed this. It's over-the-top, ridiculous, kind of contrived... Oh my God - I have it! He was having fun! Yes, it happened. This is a film that you don't watch expecting a mind-blowing dramatic experience. It's unashamed. I love it when these make it to theaters. The film gave me a Sam-Raimi-esque sort of impression, where everything is kind of, "Derp," but it's meant to be. This is something right up my alley.

It's kind of bizarre, actually. The plot itself doesn't lend itself to this style. The script was probably penned by a serious man (not the Coens, though), and there's a flashback near the end that actually had a pretty serious tone. The last line? Definitely meant to be taken seriously. So what gives?... Frankly, I don't know and I don't care.

C'mon Get happpyyyyy!

One last thing - the dream sequences. Yes, DiCaprio and dreams again... Whoopidy-doo right? Well, they're probably the best part of the film. A complaint from Inception was that the dreams were filmed to cleanly, and resembled reality too much. This sort of has that same problem... but it kind of works here, I guess. They're supposed to double as hallucinations, which makes everything click a lot better. They also could be the creepiest part of the film (and the funniest simultaneously).

So, overall - this is a movie worth watching. It stretches on a bit too long (by about 20-30 min.) and it's far from perfect, but you'll probably be entertained. And fuck! Isn't that what we all want?

Overall - 7/10: Sweet, sweet madness!