From Page To Screen: Shutter Island

By Maureen

When I saw the trailer for Shutter Island, I was instantly intrigued. My first celebrity crush, Leonardo DiCaprio, delving into my current career field, mental health? Seemed too good to be true.

Then I found out that the film was based on a novel by Dennis Lehane, and I decided to read the novel first. This was both a good and a bad decision. The novel Shutter Island is engrossing and a quick, suspenseful read. It is certainly preferable to my usual way of passing time while commuting, which is glaring at everyone playing their music too loudly over their headphones. It does, however, make the film experience different than I feel it would have been had I not read the book beforehand. The film adheres very closely to the book, so knowledge of plot points changes the experience. That caveat aside, I enjoyed each element immensely.

The novel is tightly packed, with small hints to the novel’s resolution interwoven throughout the story. This is also the case with the film, but these hints are easier to catch in a visual medium being displayed in digital projection. The film follows an almost-identical trajectory, with the only real difference being the amount of backstory on DiCaprio’s character that is presented to the audience.

It’s refreshing to see a film adaptation that adheres closely to its source material without seeming stiff. In my experience, there are generally two major casualties that can result from attempting to stay faithful to a novel. On the one hand, the film may come out very stifled, and it becomes obvious that the director has not incorporated any of his own vision into interpreting the material (see the first two films in the Harry Potter film franchise). The other outcome is that “necessary” plot points are jammed haphazardly into the film without any real flow or bridge explaining the sequences (see Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix).

Pleasantly, Shutter Island the film does neither of these. The differences between the film and the novel are subtle enough that the film doesn’t suffer, but it’s still clear that director Martin Scorsese added his own touches and style to the screenplay. The film held my attention through its entire two-hour run time, which is significant given that I already knew the entire story. The acting is impressive, especially from the character played by Ben Kingsley; his character’s true motivations remain cleverly hidden even after the film ends.

To more fully review Shutter Island, the book or the film, would be to give away a lot of suspenseful plot information that does best when it is gradually revealed. One advantage I do feel that the film has over the novel in terms of plot revelations is the ending. The ending is the same in both, but the facial expressions and body language involved in the final scenes make it easier to read deeper into the action happening on screen.

I had to read the last two pages of the novel over a few times to fully grasp the implications, whereas in the movie it is easily visualized and no one in the audience was confused. Some slight tweaking to the immediately preceding scene adds a layer of depth to the ending that I did not see in the novel at all, but which I immediately pondered for the rest of the weekend after viewing the movie.

I do not regret my decision to read the book as well as see the film for Shutter Island, but if I had to recommend a course of treatment (this is a movie about psychiatry, after all), I would say see the film. You’re not missing anything by not reading the book, the surprises are big and glossy instead of between the lines, and the ending is even more perplexing and powerful.