Word: pasts
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Living in humid, jazzy 1930s St. Louis, the Wingfield family spends much of their time wishing they were elsewhere. Amanda (Caroline R. Giuliani ’11) constantly relives her past as a Southern Belle besotted by male attention. She wants the same youth for her 23 year-old daughter, Laura. But Laura (the wide-eyed Rachel A. Stark ’11—a Crimson news editor), who is slightly disabled and cripplingly shy, instead devotes her days to her collection of glass animals. In and out clamors Tom (David J. Smolinsky ’11), Laura?...
...outlandish plot offers the characters the chance to confront unique and hilarious situations as they try to “kick some past,” as the film’s tagline states. The cast acknowledges, for example, that little heed is paid to the theoretical laws of time travel in the movie. When asked about how the hot tub is able to travel through time, Duke, of “Greek” and “Superbad” fame, says, “There is little to no explanation...
...Raging Bull,” the sports movie that focused on the violent imperfections of human nature, to “The Departed,” a police procedural/gangland thriller that studied loyalty, betrayal, and identity in a disconcertingly harsh light, he has always found a way to push past the cliché, the obvious, and the mundane. With “Shutter Island,” Scorsese turns his attention to a new genre: the psychological thriller. A mind-bending, atmospheric film with a couple of vertigo-inducing twists and turns, “Shutter Island” nonetheless...
...acting is similarly excellent. DiCaprio, who continues to grow as an actor under Scorsese’s tutelage, turns in one of his more powerful performances. Though his character may seem to fall into the standard trope of a hardened hero plauged by a traumatic past, DiCaprio effectively portrays Daniels’ spiraling instability as his perception of the world grows more uncertain. Meanwhile, Kingsley and the rest of the hospital staff exude a menacing solidarity that complements the film’s sinister audiovisual elements perfectly...
...that might be enough to satisfy. But from Martin Scorsese, we have come to expect something more. We expect a coherent and thought-provoking message. We expect great ideas, new innovations, broken boundaries. We expect, in short, a film that is different, one that will stay with us well past the final fade-to-black. And it is this essential point where “Shutter Island” is found lacking. It is competent, but also vaguely utilitarian—fun while it lasts, but slight in lasting impact. And that, from Scorsese, is simply inadequate...