Cinema Wednesdays - Special edition: Leonardo DiCaprio - Jonas Follonier
The power of a film like Shutter Island is no longer in doubt. As is the talent of its star actor, Leonardo DiCaprio. Everything about this film is successful, starting with the uncertainty it manages to maintain in the viewer right up to the end. Making this work the sister of’Inception, by the same Leo, also released in 2010. But the strength of Shutter Island, The underlying theme is the mourning of love. This theme has received far too little comment. So let's go.
The Fifties. Off the coast of Baston, an island: Shutter Island. Sheltered by the island, an ultra-secure psychiatric hospital. A patient has escaped. Her name? Rachel Solando. Teddy Daniels (Leonardo DiCaprio) and Chuck Aule (Mark Ruffalo), both U.S. Marshals, must investigate her disappearance. As soon as he arrives on the island, Teddy has strange impressions. Between dreams, headaches and memories, he soon suspects that the mission will be more complex than expected. He's suspicious of Doctors Cawley (Ben Kingsley) and Naehring (Max von Sydow). What they're telling him doesn't add up. What could be going on on this island?
The madness of love
The uniqueness of this thriller lies in the fact that it is not so much the events taking place on the scene that place the character-investigator in a situation of action, but rather his mental events. This is a psychological thriller. Not because it features criminals suffering from mental illness, but because it's based on the mind of the main protagonist. His mind is haunted by the memory of Dachau and the memory of his late wife, played by the intriguing Michelle Williams. She died two years earlier in a fire, and comes to see her widowed husband in his nocturnal dreams. It is she who inspires his actions, who accompanies him in his doubts and pain. The horns of the terrifying investigation are only the echo of the deeper violins of the flashbacks.
For yes, as the music makes clear, the key to the film hinges on this painful memory. Although it's often referred to as an «open ending», as in Inception, Shutter Island tells us something certain, whatever the interpretation of the story's outcome: the grief of love can drive you mad. Without giving too much away to readers who would like to discover the film and, if possible, be carried away by the plot and its excellent suspense, we can nevertheless emphasize that Teddy's bond with the death of his beloved wife sums up the entire plot. When love is killed, when it effectively disappears, the world goes mad. Eros and Thanatos, This dualism between love and death is supported by the essential fact of madness.
If we define madness as the absence of meaning, then the world we live in is often mad. Made up of impossible, phantasmal and murderous loves, it presents itself to mortals as an ancient battleground in which we have to make our way with as little sadness as possible. If the meaning of the life or’a life exists, then one thing's for sure: it's not obvious. No wonder there's so much discussion about the film's meaning... Shutter IslandMartin Scorsese's master stroke is to construct his film in the image of life and the way it appears to us. Ambiguous, complex, tragic, ripe for reversal. Well done, maestro.
Write to the author: jonas.follonier@leregardlibre.com
Photo credit: © Paramount Pictures
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