SUBTLE!!!! Movie Review: Shutter Island

Shutter Island was the best free movie so far this year! Hmm...

It wasn't awful. I think there was actually a pretty good movie in there somewhere, being beaten senseless by the one we actually saw, which kept shouting its ominous portentousness at us every minute. I thought for a while that there was something wrong with the sound system in the theater, because honestly, would anyone intentionally make a soundtrack that over-the-top?

Also, directors everywhere? You cannot do that overhead scene where someone screams "noooooooooooooo!!!!!!" at the sky. Seriously, just don't.

No, not even if the character is in a situation where someone in real life might in fact scream "noooooooooooooo!!!!!!" at the sky. Unless you want to elicit a snicker from jaded members of your audience who've seen movies before, leave it alone.

Because it's still a cliche even if the movie is set in a time before it was a cliche.

Anyway, the movie. We have Leonardo DiCaprio looking frowny and tormented, and Mark Ruffalo looking sturdy and charming, and they're U.S. Marshals investigating the escape of a patient from a hospital for the criminally insane on an island off the coast of Boston.

Or are they? (Ominous music.)

Because DiCaprio's character seems to have some other issues in mind.

Something sinister is going on, and there is, naturally, no escape from said island. And there's a storm. And there are lots of dramatic atmospheric shots and strange occurrences. Hallucinations and memories.

I didn't hate it. There were bits that I liked, and the puzzle comes together in a fairly interesting way at the end.

But man, did it ever feel like being whacked on the head with the movie's Ideas and Plot. I just felt a little worn out by the end. I felt that if it had been just a bit more subtle, it might have been awesome.

I read in other reviews that this movie is heavily influenced by classic film noir, which does rather whack one on the head, I suppose, so perhaps approaching it with that in mind would yield better results.

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