From Book to Film: Shutter Island

Shutter Island by Dennis Lehane

Harper Torch, 2004
Suspense/Thriller, 400 pgs
Rating: (Very Good)

I read Mystic River years ago and fell in love with Dennis Lehane's writing. His characters were so real and fleshed out that I felt I could reach out and touch them. I liked everything about the book: from the tone to the setting to the complex story line. I knew I wanted to read more by the author but wasn't sure if Shutter Island would be the best place to go next. The movie coming out decided for me. Only, it's taken me awhile to get around to actually reading the book.

When the movie buzz was high, praise for the book was immense. But I remember when the book first came out, there were quite a few mixed reviews. Shutter Island is no Mystic River. It is different from the previous books the author had written in many regards, and so that is to be expected. It shares some of the same characteristics, however. Both Mystic River and Shutter Island are dark and brooding. The characters are deeply troubled, haunted by their pasts.

Set during a hurricane on an island, at a mental institution for the criminally insane where the most violent perpetrators are housed, Shutter Island has all the elements of a good thriller novel. The year is 1954; World War II has long been over, but the scars remain.

The setting of the story is significant. The 1950's were an interesting time in U.S. history. McCarthyism was strong and the controversy around certain psychiatric treatment methods was beginning to come to the forefront. Psychiatry back then was highly experimental; new drugs were being tested and lobotomies were in vogue. The novel opens with Marshal Teddy Daniels and his new partner Chuck Aule's arrival on the island. They were sent to investigate the disappearance of a patient, Rachel Solando, who mysteriously disappeared from her locked cell. As the story unfolds, it is clear there are dark secrets being kept at Ashecliffe Hospital.

Teddy's ghosts revolve around his late wife, his guilt over her death and is not being there for her when she needed him most. It colors his thoughts and actions throughout his investigation, coming in the way of flashbacks and dreams.

This is actually a difficult book to summarize in that to give too much away is to take away from the suspense of the story. It's got several layers which make it all the more intriguing. I was less enamored by Shutter Island than I had been by Mystic River, but I still enjoyed the novel quite a bit. It got off to a slow start but grew in intensity.

The movie followed very closely to the book, with only minor changes. This is one of those cases where not knowing what is going to happen has its advantages, and yet knowing, I was able to make out little details that I perhaps had overlooked in the book.

The island was much more beautiful than the one I'd created in my imagination, and I easily bought into Leonardo DiCarpio as Teddy Daniels. I never tire of seeing Ben Kingsley and Mark Ruffalo in movies, and this instance was no different. The movie pulled off the tone and sort of gothic feel that was also in the book. And while the story itself is good, like with any Lehane story, it is the characters that make it all the more rich. This is true for both the book and the movie.

In the movie version, I got a stronger sense of Teddy's past as a soldier, about his memories to the war than I did while reading the book. It's hard to imagine anyone seeing what he did come out unscathed. It carries over in his suspicions of experimentation at the mental facility. I was impressed too with how well the flashback and dream sequences were played out. They generally come off as cheesy in movies, but they were very well crafted in this film. The fit the tone and helped move the story along.

Like with the book and movie of Mystic River, I find myself at a loss to say which is better in the case of Shutter Island. I enjoyed both equally.

Shutter Island
Drama, Thriller, Mystery - 2010 (rated R)
Directed by Martin Scorsese
Written by Laeta Kalogridis (screenplay) & Dennis Lehane (novel)
Rating: (Very Good)


Source: My boss loaned me her copy of the book (although I do own my own copy, which I purchased years ago). The movie was a rental from Netflix.

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