So, I saw Shutter Island last night, and I think I liked it better than most people I know who saw it. I figured out the big twist right away, but I think you were supposed to – it was the how of the reveal that was the thing, not the what. That said, I felt like I was watching Inception: The Goth Remix (or maybe because it came out first, Inception is Shutter Island: The Techno Version?).
I mean seriously:
- Leonardo DeCaprio as a haunted, possibly unbalanced investigator in scenes where it becomes difficult to determine what’s real and what isn’t incorporating dreams/flashbacks within dreams/flashbacks
- Obscure and often frightening visions of Leo’s dead wife, plus haunting flashes of children
- An atonal, bombastic soundtrack punctuated by a Significant Song that sometimes is shown playing on a turntable
- A loyal second-in-command who disappears from Leo’s reality for most of the latter part of the movie
- An ambiguous ending leaving the exact nature of Leo’s final fate up for question
So I guess it comes down to:
- Gothic horror noir vs. retro-future noir
- Michelle Williams vs. Marion Cotillard
- Mark Ruffalo vs. JG-L
- Ben Kingsley, Max Von Sydow, Jackie Earl Haley, Ted Levine, Elias Koteas & Patricia Clarkson vs. Ken Watanabe, Michael Caine, Cillian Murphy, Tom Berenger and Pete Postlethwaite
- Hitchcock, Michael Powell and Mario Bava vs. video games, William Gibson and Conrad Hilton
There’s no real equivalent of Tom Hardy, though.