Rarely do film adaptations eclipse their source material. However it'd be difficult not to here. Not even a quarter into Dennis Lehane's original work I'd figured out two-thirds of the 'twist'. The rest not long after. An unforgivable sin for a 'psychological thriller'.
Telegraphed clues ultimately betrayed Lehane's "Shutter Island". Consequently, I clearly had a different experience viewing Scorsese's adaptation than most. Engaging with Teddy Daniels' plight and the 'twist' was impossible. Furthermore assessing the film's clues becomes extremely hard. I knew what to look for. Would I have even noticed them had I not touched the novel? How revealing were they? I can't confidently answer either.
Despite this both Mark Ruffalo and Ben Kingsley do well to hint, but not over-emphasise, through their portrayals. DiCaprio, almost always reliable, dusts off the Boston accent from "The Departed" delivering a solid, if unremarkable, performance as US Marshal Teddy Daniels. Shutter Island is beautifully, and accurately, realised on screen. Gloomy, foreboding. It isn't hard to imagine someone unfamiliar with the plot being sucked in by the locale, atmosphere and actors. There are moments of inspired direction, as expected from Scorsese. The sliding shot displaying hundreds of Nazi guards being executed stands as one memorable sequences.
Some omissions do stick out uncomfortably. Shame that the cause of Dolores' manic depression isn't communicated. Those flashbacks were some of the more poignant and unsettling parts of Lehane's novel, not to mention contextually relevant. The dream sequences and Daniels' fractured characterisation, also, still feel far too (potentially) obvious. How can a man so blatantly troubled be anything but unstable?
Scorsese's slightly altered conclusion delivers one final 'shock', greater than the novel's. For a film that barely excited due to exterior influences, it still managed to surprise and provoke thought. However, like Lehane's book, it did fail in what it strived for. Like Nolan's amazing "Memento", "Shutter Island" attempts to fabricate the experience of mental disorder - schizophrenia specifically - for the audience. The inability to engage in Daniels' story, and subsequently to 'feel' its jolting upheavel, severely impairs the realisation of this effect. Whether that's a flaw of the film or simply my having read the novel isn't clear. It would be best to try it out for one's self.
Martin Scorsese is a better storyteller than Dennis Lehane. And the story itself is intriguing should you remain ignorant of the telegraphed moments. As such, although critical of his book, full credit absolutely goes to Dennis Lehane for having the initial and ambitious vision.
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