I forsake the idea of reviewing Dennis Lehane books a long time ago. Any aura of credibility you might perceive while reading my impressions is an illusion. I'm a pretty good salesman though, everybody who I shoved a Lehane novel at became a rabid fan. The man can write. SHUTTER ISLAND is the third novel of his that was turned into a movie after MYSTIC RIVER and GONE BABY GONE that both were very successful in their own way. SHUTTER ISLAND was the hardest challenge yet, though. A big production, lead by legendary director Martin Scorcese, a radical departure from Dennis Lehane's usual themes and an entire visual universe to bring to life. I haven't read SHUTTER ISLAND is several years, so I took on myself to watch the movie to refresh my mind about this terrific gothic tale.
Teddy Daniels (Leonardo DiCaprio) is a U.S Marshal affected to the disappearance of a patient named Rachel Solando (the superb Emily Mortimer), held in the psychiatric hospital for the criminally insane of Shutter Island. Teddy and his partner Chuck Aule (Mark Ruffalo) interrogate the patients and the staff of the hospital and realize Rachel must've had inside help. The hospital is torn between conservative doctors proning violent treatment to help control and subdue their dangerous patients and more progressive ones, seeking alternate treatment methods to heal them. The investigation also was a perfect excuse for Teddy to visit Shutter Island to try and find Andrew Laeddis (Elias Koteas), the man found responsible for his wife's death a couple years before. So Teddy is not being honest either.
SHUTTER ISLAND is, first and foremost, a great story about that fascinating delusions human beings have about being the good guy. Everybody is the hero of their own idiosyncratic little story. The characters of SHUTTER ISLAND all believe in the purpose of their actions and Martin Scorcese translated through a series of precise and subtle choices, the disquieting feeling present in the novel that your appointed protagonist may or may not be the good guy. SHUTTER ISLAND is a beautiful movie (if you're into gothic imagery) and yet thrives on the smallest details, on things you wouldn't necessarily notice after one or two viewings. That gives the movie a lasting power of his own. Even if you don't feel like ever reading Dennis Lehane's novel, you could watch Martin Scorcese's SHUTTER ISLAND over and over again and keep picking up clues about this tremendous story.
Adapting Dennis Lehane to the silver screen is a monstrous task and Martin Scorcese might've pulled off the most precise job so far. MYSTIC RIVER was a fantastic movie (that won Oscars), but the novel is so good and so not visual that the adaptation lost half of its interest. SHUTTER ISLAND was a departure both in themes and style for Dennis Lehane. A gothic backdrop and visual cues took over for internal monologue. It's not that the characters don't have inner selves anymore, but that self is exposed to others in one way or another and Martin Scorcese turned these moments of tormented introspection into high points of his movie. SHUTTER ISLAND lends itself to visual storytelling. It's a story that, unlike most Dennis Lehane novels, demanded a movie.
I'm comfortable saying SHUTTER ISLAND is not the best Dennis Lehane novel, but it's the best movie adaptation. Some projects can become more than the sum of their parts when they are given an outside look and SHUTTER ISLAND's story of torment and alienation is just that. The tagline of the movie ''someone is missing'' embodies the cerebral fun it is to watch a movie where you need to take responsibility for your viewing experience because the storyline is flat out lying to you. I don't think SHUTTER ISLAND has a strong place in Dennis Lehane's canon, but it will live through its movie adaptation and satisfy the hell out of any mystery fan that decides to give it a go. It's about all the success a novel adaptation can wish for.