Monday, May 12, 2025

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Trailer: Martin Scorsese’s ‘Shutter Island’ Finally Hits

The trailer to Marty Scorsese’s “Shutter Island,” starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Mark Ruffalo and Michelle Williams is online at Apple trailers. Based on the novel by Dennis Lehane, the story centers on a pair of 1950s era Federal Marshalls sent to an island that houses a bunker-like mental hospital for the criminally insane to retrieve an escaped and highly dangerous mental patient (played by Emily Mortimer). But all is not what it seems on the creepy island run by two odd and cold doctors played by by the great Max Von Sydow (of every great Ingmar Bergman film) and Ben Kingsley.

We have to say one thing we love about the trailer to the psychological thriller is that it looks exactly how we pictured it when we read the script which is honestly a very rare thing. As one of our contribs says, it looks like it “goes off the rails” which it does in the script and it’s one of those tightly wound ones you can’t mess with or it’ll falls apart. Think a certain 1990-released psychological thriller with Tim Robbins and you’ll get a good idea of the tone of this one. And again, the trailer nails that tone, for better or worse. This one isn’t a Best Picture winner in our minds, at least not on paper, but it should still be the damn best thriller we’ve seen in theaters in a while. But, hmmm, do you think the dream sequences look as “realistic” as Scorsese said they would be? Maybe as realistic as a dream sequence can be. Also as many have noted today, the trailer actually seems to spoil a lot of the film, so watch it at your own risk.

Here’s the official synopsis, but it’s not much, it’s the type of film they want to be vague about so as not to spoil all the twists:

From Oscar®-winning director Martin Scorsese, “Shutter Island” is the story of two U.S. marshals, Teddy Daniels (Leonardo DiCaprio) and Chuck Aule (Mark Ruffalo), who are summoned to a remote and barren island off the coast of Massachusetts to investigate the mysterious disappearance of a murderess from the island’s fortress-like hospital for the criminally insane.

“Shutter Island” is due October 2. Note the running time on the film is 2 hours and 31 minutes. Nice. Marty’s going long because he can.

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13 COMMENTS

  1. A good source told us his producers pushed him to do this as leverage for his artsier upcoming projects like that Jesuit priest film he wants to do with Day Lew, del Toro and Garcia Bernal. That film was said to shoot this spring, but we're not sure it actually happened.

  2. "A good source told us his producers pushed him to do this as leverage for his artsier upcoming projects."

    I hope so — this looks hilariously bad. Like The Happening-bad. Or the Wicker Man remake-bad. Leo as a hardboiled veteran detective looks like he's in a Max Fischer play.

  3. It does seem like an odd choice for Scorsese. In fact, if you didn't know he directed the film, and if Leo wasn't in it, I think you would assume it was just another run of the mill horror movie, a la The Ring, Dark Water etc. Looks better than that of course, but you know what I mean.

  4. how do you know the film will be 2 1/2 hours? Is it already locked? I've read the book and I don't think a thriller of this sort would really benefit from a longer run time (for this type of film anyway)

  5. Tristan — Scorsese hasn't been consistently good since he followed up Taxi Driver with New York, New York. So what? Most of the greats have more than their share of missteps. It's cause they take risks. Doesn't mean we shouldn't be excited about his latest, the guy's proven he can still put out great work.

  6. I kinda agree with Tristan. What was the last great movie he did? The Departed was decent for contemporary Scorsese, but his Leonard DiCaprio phase has been largely unsuccessful. Still, I think this should be good for what is is: a decent thriller, nothing more nothing less. All those people who have pegged this one to be an Oscar contender need to manage their over-excited expectations, but it is a weak enough year that Leo could squeak in a nomination since he seems to get them a lot (but never wins).

  7. Second Single – I appreciate your point, but I think following up a stone cold masterpiece like Taxi Driver with a weaker film is a comparatively different position to be in than following a run of films like The Aviater, Gangs of New York, The Departed, and so on. I love Scorcese, but I think people need to acknowledge he's not the force he once was, and stop overstating the case for stuff like the Departed.

  8. I agree he's not AS great as he was in the '70s (Gangs of NY would have been something special had he made it back then) but he can still make a great film. I'll grant you he's not churning out classics like he was, but his films are still a cut above 99% of stuff released. I thought The Departed was terrific. Oscar worthy? Not really, but still an effective thriller, save for a few bad accents here and there. Like most great directors, he could stand to trim more than he does. But for a film like Shutter Island–I feel he's still completely capable of delivering a great thriller and that it's worth getting excited about. Personally, I'd rather see him make some Hitchcockian thrillers than attempt another Gangs of NY.

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