April Showers: Shutter Island
Tuesday, April 5, 2011 at 11:00PM waterworks weeknights at 11 as we turn on the cinematic shower.
For a movie I claim to have not liked at all, I really have been going back to Scorsese's Shutter Island (2010) repeatedly while blogging, haven't I? It just keeps coming up somehow. A lot of it is just too stiffly serious when it would have been a better sit had it swerved towards the archly horrific on occassion to offset its portentous Sturm und Drang.
But about those Sturms...
Pull yourself together Teddy. Pull yourself together. It's just water. It's a lot of water.
Teddy Daniels in Shutter Island is barely functional considering all the lakes, oceans and storms haunting him. So it's kind of pitiable that he also has to shower in the movie, too. Both times it's just so completely futile.
Two sorry showers after the jump.
First Shower
Our first shower scene is super brief and almost not a shower scene at all; it's post-rinse. But what's oddly funny about the sequence is that it's preceded by Teddy and his partner looking like drowned rats in a storm. They're told to dry off. Cut to:
But of course. When someone tells you to dry off, pouring water all over yourself is the ideal next step. I hadn't noticed before that both showers involve Teddy's partner Chuck (Mark Ruffalo) once physically and once psychologically. What does it mean? (Please refrain from Mark & Leo slash fic' in the comments.
Second Shower
The next shower follows a disturbing conversation with Dr Cawley (Ben Kingsley). Teddy ends the scene asking about his partner and reminds him that he doesn't have one. Teddy has just met the Real Rachel in a cave cliffside and now he's really worried about his sanity. So he opts to play along.
What partner?
He'll play their sick mindfuck games. Cut to: shower.
This is what we call a Cleansing Shower.
It's clearly the type of shower you take when you need to wash the bad thoughts away and attempt a clean start with your Plan B. It's the type of shower Marion Crane tried to take after putting her sandwich down at The Bates Motel, a return to Phoenix on her mind. Poor Marion.
Cleansing Showers are super useful in real life but they're almost never successful in the movies. (Unless all you need is a good cry. Movie showers are sometimes good for that.) This shower doesn't work for Teddy at all despite the awesome water pressure that gothic asylums come with..
He tries to rinse it all away but he emerges blinking, nervous and still very much on edge. And now he's wet again.
Oh Teddy... water is never the answer.
Not when you look like Leonardo DiCaprio. Leo has been threatened with drowning his entire career (Titanic's sinking, The Beach's island of no escape, What's Eating Gilbert Grape's eternal bath, Inception's dream waves and van dives). His movie characters now have hydrophobia built into their very DNA.
Reader Comments (15)
Ha. Maybe Joe Wright could use him for Little Mermaid.
I wish I could say something about the movie but I really didn't care about it much then and not at all now. Ruffalo has a better body than Leo. That's all I got :p
Leo was ignored by AMPAS for this one...the performance was even more compelling the second go-around...the scene at the lake house didn't feel as over-the-top on second viewing...it was pitched and edited just right.
BTW, Shutter Island is like the male version of Black Swan...how odd if Leo had gained traction with the academy and won alongside Natalie Portman!
Mark Ruffalo... yum.
i just realized that I was calling Mark Ruffalo's character "paul" (fixed) er... no, nathaniel, that's THE KIDS ARE ALL RIGHT. And the kids are totally not all right in this movie. yikes. Also, "Chuck" does no sperm doning at Shutter Island.
What the heck are you talking about? Nothing making sense. Another excuse just to nick pick on Leonardo? You've been doing this for a long time. I think its time to pick on someone else.
Janet, what are you talking about? Nowhere in this article is Leo picked on...
Love the shower series.
I like everything you say, and everything you say about Leo especially. Good water point.
Janet -- yes, Janet I must concur with Wheels. Nowhere in the article did I disparage Leo in this movie. I actually think he's pretty great in it. maybe not nomination great but definitely one of his finer performances.
You can shower us with as much Leo as you'd like.
I loved "Shutter Island." I would have nodded DiCaprio over Bridges or Franco.
Yeah, I could see Leo over Bridges but I loved Franco. As per usual, too many good male performances to fit into a category with a mere FIVE. To Nathaniel I say, there is humor in Shutter Island if you look for it. It's there and there are plenty of arch movie references, too. A film operating on too many levels, I guess, to be fully appreciated on even more than one sitting.
If I have to pick one of the two Leo performances last year, I would go with Inception. He just went with that scowl far, far too often here. At least he didn't need to tax his eyebrows when he is doing exposition in Inception.
At first I didn't like Shutter Island much, because the 'twist' was pretty obvious from the start. But I saw it a second time recently and loved it. There are so many clues in this movie and I just kept wondering how I didn't see them upon the first viewing.
However, I don't think Leo's performances were oscar worthy. I just get the feeling he's kinda acting on autopilot. Guilt ridden husband, who can't cope with the loss of his wife. It's time for a different character.
I loved "Shutter Island" too. Hopefully it'll get its true appreciation and due over time. My ideal best actor lineup would have had Leonardo DiCaprio in it for "Shutter Island" (and Ryan Gosling for "Blue Valentine"). Throw out Jeff Bridges. Keep Javier Bardem, Jesse Eisenberg, and maybe Coliin Firth. Yeah, I think I'd take out James Franco too. But it was a strong year for lead actor. I wouldn't have minded a nod for Robert Duvall either. Or let's go really crazy with Ewan McGregor. Hope 2011 is just as competitive as 2010 here.
Just saw this awesome website this morning. Thought I'd share as it relates to this topic. They even mention Leo's troubled relationship with water:
http://themanyfacesof.com/leonardo-dicaprio/