Thursday, June 19, 2008

by Ari

Updated with script review:

There's no doubt Martin Scorsese is a miracle worker with tremendous insight and understanding of all things film. Not only is he my favorite director, but I'd say he's probably the most important American filmmaker behind Welles, Kubrick and Ford. Everyone knows his legacy. Everyone knows what he's capable of doing. Everyone knows his influence.....

Now that I've read Laeta Kalogridis' 136 page "writer's draft" of Shutter Island, I can attempt to explain what attracted Scorsese to this material. While the screenplay seems to take itself seriously, there's no way to describe the story as anything but a B movie with a painfully obvious twist. The title change from Shutter Island to Ashecliffe is sort of a spoiler itself, something that leads me to believe Scorsese is having fun with the absurdity of the story and not taking it as seriously as lesser filmmaker would try to do. I guess my point is that Scorsese will pull off a miraculous feat of directorial skill to make this screenplay come alive in any sort of dramatic sense. He has the right cast to pull it off, and I'm hoping DiCaprio brings something to the table to elevate his character as written on the page. He is, after all, one of the best actors working today and capable of pulling off miracles himself.

There are moments and individual sequences that work. A few horrific images, a constantly threatening environment, a few religious undertones (and that's being very kind) and ultimately a thematic arc that deals with a familiar Scorsese issue: guilt. But these elements barely come together as the pieces of the puzzle slowly unravel. For a mystery, Ashecliffe is obvious from the very beginning. There's no real tension on the page because the ending is so telegraphed it's almost laughable. The plot deals with an investigation of a missing patient from an asylum on Shutter Island. The main officer investigating the case is played by DiCaprio, a man torn by the death of his wife, his experiences in World War II (the story is set in 1954) and his personal interest with someone he believes is somewhere on the Island. A lot mysterious characters dwell on Shutter Island, like Doctor Cawly and Naehring (to be played by Ben Kingsley and Max Von Sydow respectively) and maybe his new partner, Chuck Aule (Mark Ruffalo).

On the initial post I mentioned how the story sounded like something similar to Hitchcock or Val Lewton. Until we see a trailer for the film nobody can be sure, but I'd say it's a pretty good guess for the stylistic approach Scorsese will use. It almost HAS to be done this way because, as I said, no serious filmmaker will take the story very seriously. As some crazy old-fashioned horror film, I can see Scorsese turning it into a worthwhile exercise in atmosphere and visual suspense. You have a huge storm ala Key Largo and a hallucinatory flashback structure that provides an excuse to play with special effects, color, distorted framing, etc. On that level I can see it being interesting, I suppose.

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Martin Scorsese's new film Ashecliffe (retitled from Shutter Island) is scheduled for release in over a year, but some images are beginning to appear online from the shoot. I'm still not overly enthusiastic about the choice of this film over Shusaku Endo's Silence, but I suppose there's issues with funding or preparation for Endo's controversial novel. Like The Last Temptation of Christ and Kundun, Silence explores religious themes head-on with its depiction of Japanese Christians in the 17th Century. Ashecliffe is nothing like this. From what I can tell, it sounds like another Cape Fear for Scorsese - a thriller that mixes his enjoyment of Val Lewton horror with the technical craft of Hitchcock, maybe.

I'm sure it will be greatly entertaining at the very least. I've never seen Scorsese completely misfire and I doubt it'll happen with this film. That said, Lehane readers have expressed their disappointment with a twist ending that's "completely ridiculous", "awful". "embarrassing", "one of the worst things ever written on the page".

So, what happens at the end? I'd like to know if anyone's read it. Email me. If you post it in the comments section, just make sure to mark it as a "spoiler" so others can skip it.

So SPOILER WARNING BELOW