For the CRIMINALLY INSANE!!
Gotta love the opening to New York Times critic A.O. Scott's review of Martin Scorsese's psychological thriller Shutter Island which is released on U.S. screens today, and I can picture exactly where he is coming from (though note, I haven't seen the movie - just the line delivery from the trailer);
Shutter Island takes place off the coast of Massachusetts in 1954. Im sorry, that should be OFF THE COAST OF MASSACHUSETTS! IN 1954! since every detail and incident in the movie, however minor, is subjected to frantic, almost demented (and not always unenjoyable) amplification. The wail of strangled cellos accompanies shots of the titular island, a sinister, rain-lashed outcropping that is home to a mental hospital for the CRIMINALLY INSANE! The color scheme is lurid, and the camera movements telegraph anxiety. Nothing is as it seems. Something TERRIBLE is afoot.Even though Scott goes on to give the movie a bad review calling it a "strained and pointless contrivance" - with a few too many red-herrings, false starts and misdirective Macguffins - but that opening got me just about as excited for Shutter Island as any other review I've read. Nobody makes movies with the exception of Brian De Palma in this style anymore and we haven't seen Scorsese do it in twenty years. Why do I have to wait until till March 12th to see it. Why, Why?