arizona daily wildcat • friday, february 19, 2010 •
Wildlife
WEEKEND
SHUTTER ISLAND: Movie vs. book
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‘Fiddler on the Roof’ dances its way to Tucson By Emily Moore Arizona Daily Wildcat
Photo courtesy of Paramount Pictures
‘Shutter Island’ a Scorsese success By Kathleen Roosa Arizona Daily Wildcat From the initial discordant shout of classical music,“Shutter Island”makes its tone obvious — portentous and epic. Stemming from a novel of the same name and masterfully conducted by Martin Scorsese, the film takes the much-beloved genre of mystery and adds the slinky touch of classic film noir to form a story that will keep you genuinely entertained until the theater lights come back up. Set in 1954,“Shutter Island” chronicles Leonardo DiCaprio as Teddy Daniels, a U.S. Marshal investigating a patient’s disappearance at Shutter Island, a mental hospital for the criminally insane. The diminutive island is ominous and the staff is even more enigmatic. Ben Kingsley portrays the chief physician, Dr. John Cawley, whose small smiles glint like knives. As Teddy scours the rocky bluffs for an escaped patient, his past slowly emerges to reveal a glorious backdrop of trauma that both defines and destroys
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his psyche. His past military infiltration of a Nazi concentration camp mingles with the recent death of his wife to drive Teddy onward in an attempt to grasp at a solution to his tribulations. Though DiCaprio might look like a frustrated pug at times, his performance is sturdy and
Martin Scorsese Shutter Island Paramount Pictures Rated R
he rushes headlong with the audience through a myriad of explanations for all the crazy phenomena surrounding him. Kingsley repeatedly exposes different lenses through which to view the enigma, enabling the investigation to continue while simultaneously presenting numerous obstacles to the final unanticipated truth. “Shutter Island”registers deeply on a sensuous level. The score ranges from grand orchestral numbers to searing saws that will further raise the lump in your throat. Torrential storms utterly control the rough island with terrible beauty. The drip-drip of water in an empty hallway leaves you eagerly
awaiting the next opportunity to jump in your seat. Numerous characters with mental disorders coupled with confusing ghostly signs create more dead ends than a game of Clue. In the background a lighthouse looms, hinting at some fate that both draws and repels. It might not be Scorsese’s best work compared to“Taxi Driver”(1976) and “The Departed”(2006), but it appears that he’s trying more to entertain than to make imposing statements. Movie buffs can appreciate the Hitchcockesque staccato camera shots and multiple plot reversals. Though the plot is not particularly fresh, the storytelling ultimately becomes more intriguing than the story itself. There are only so many tricks in the book, and“Shutter Island” unashamedly masters all of them. Don’t watch“Shutter Island”if you suffer from any of the following conditions: An abnormal fear of rats, jagged heights or nastily delicious psychotic people.“Shutter Island”is specifically formulated to treat boredom, empty weekends and milder cases of cinephilia. Side effects include laughter, quick thinking and dropped jaws upon watching the final scenes. But be forewarned — it may even induce a second viewing.
Prosaic paranoia crowns Lehane’s ‘Island’ By Brandon Specktor Arizona Daily Wildcat Dennis Lehane is no stranger to film. Not only has he been a guest writer for three episodes of HBO’s“The Wire” and even worn that thick-brimmed director’s cap on the set of his own independent film“Neighborhoods” (1990), but his print oeuvre even boasts an apparent cinematic quality. Now joining the Oscar-winning adaptation of “Mystic River”(2003) and“Gone Baby Gone”(2007) is the genre-bending “Shutter Island”— a narrative that is as much film noir and psychodrama as it is gothic literature. The protagonist is U.S. Marshal Teddy Daniels, a gruff, chain-smoking gumshoe with the persuasive power of Raymond Chandler’s Marlowe. We don’t get to see Teddy working the mean streets, though; his introduction comes in a cramped lavatory, puking himself into delirium on a ferry bound for a remote island off Boston. The island is Shutter Island, an ominous slab of rock housing a maximumsecurity clinic for the criminally insane. As Daniels and his new partner, the wisecracking Chuck Aule, navigate the labyrinthine corridors of Ashecliffe Hospital and the twisted crevasses of the island in search of an escaped murderess, they encounter more questions than answers. In the fashion of a hardboiled procedural, this is to be expected. Where Lehane’s story truly deviates from other detective stories is in his incorporation of a much greater, more psychological mystery: How did Daniels get that stick shoved so far up his ass? While the mystery of the escaped patient grows ever more suspicious, the mystery of Teddy’s past is revealed little by little, eventually becoming the novel’s primary focus. Starting with the initial bout of seasickness, the text slowly explores the compounding torments of Teddy’s life: the death of his father at sea, the alleged death of his wife
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in a manmade fire, and eventually Teddy’s own spiritual death in the frigid courtyard of a WWII internment camp. This narrative shift also fosters a stylistic shift, when the pulpy, B-movie diatribes between Teddy and Chuck begin disintegrating into shadows of gothic isolation and claustrophobia. But Lehane’s network of thematic references
eyes “too wide, as if something hot were prodding them from inside her head.”A regiment of mental patients as diverse as those from Ken Kesey’s “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” brims with deranged charm, but they act as warily toward Teddy as he does toward them. The island itself rounds out the cast, characterized with as much dirty history and natural malevolence as any of its eclectic residents. Dennis Lehane The differences between Shutter Island “Shutter Island” the book and Harper Collins Publishers “Shutter Island” the movie are purely in the details. 2003, 369 pages Screenwriter Laeta Kalogridis captures the pulpy language of Lehane’s protagonists expertly, and director Martin Scorsese brings the gothic hostility of the island and Ashecliffe Hospital to a stunning reality. What is reduced, obviously, is the sheer depth and history within each of Lehane’s characters — their inner thoughts and fears, their subtle edginess around Teddy. Other details in the mystery, such as the cryptic alphanumeric code discovered in the escaped Solando’s cell, are significantly condensed for the sake of screen time. The prolonged paranoia is well worth the read. In a recent press conference, Lehane expressed cynicism at the positive critical response to“Mystic River.”“There’s Photo courtesy of rfplreads.wordpress.com something bourgeois about the doesn’t stop there. book if the critics got it,” he said. His Set at the height of 1950’s goal for“Shutter Island”:“I’m going to McCarthyism and nuclear buildup, confound them. Only the French are the novel overflows with Cold going to get this.” War paranoia. Whenever new The influence is certainly there, but characters are introduced, they you don’t need to be French to enjoy are accompanied by twin specters this novel that is as much B-movie as of suspicion and menace. Deputy it is Emily Brontë. If this highly-readWarden McPherson’s voice “hit(s) the able, highly-enjoyable mesh of horror air like a steel cable”; the amiable Dr. and hardboiled sounds up your alley, Cawley’s smile is “explosive” while do yourself the favor of reading it disfiguring shadows “bled across the before you see the film; prior knowlrest of his face”; the escaped Rachel edge of the jarring conclusion might Solando beams with beauty but has sour the embedded anxiety.
Join the Tucson Convention Center on Tuesday for a trip back to simpler times full of tradition, love and Judaism in “Fiddler on the Roof” starring Theodore Bikel. The show — with such hits as “If I Were A Rich Man,” “Matchmaker, Matchmaker,” and “Miracle of Miracles,” — comes to Tucson after having the lead character Tevye replaced twice. Chaim Topol, who played Tevye in the movie, had to leave due to shoulder injuries and was replaced by Harvey Fierstein, who had to leave due to prior commitments. It’s not to say that Theodore Bikel doesn’t deserve the lead role — he’s played the role of Tevye more than 2,000 times. Bikel is an Academy Joan Marcus © 2009/Courtesy of Broadway in Tucson Award- and Tony-nominated actor emerged triumphantly giving hope and a well-known folk singer. to those amidst an unstable society. The musical takes the audience Colby Foytik plays Perchik , a on a journey to Tsarist Russia in revolutionary in love with Tevye’s 1905. Tevye, his wife and their five second daughter, Hodel. He’s been daughters are living in precarious with the tour since it started just times, and the one thing that holds over a year ago. them together is Foytik’s favorite part tradition. Then of the show is the bottle comes the matchdance in the wedding making of Tevye’s scene at the end of the Fiddler on the Roof daughters, yet one first act. by one they fall in Tucson Convention Center “It’s pretty impressive love on their own, www.broadwayintucson.com to watch the bottle dance breaking the tradievery night — four of our 1-800-745-3000 tion. The journey male dancers with bottles Feb. 23-28 for Tevye and his balanced on their heads. family, as well as Student discounts available It’s not rigged in any way, the other residents so it’s pretty amazing to of Anatevka, is watch. And literally, in that difficult and rough. Tevye must scene I’m standing there just watchdecide between following tradition ing it, but to see it happen every night or following his heart. is pretty incredible,” Foytik said. The musical premiered in 1964 The story focuses on family, love when the United States was and overcoming struggles. It’s changing and traditions were something that can remain true debeing challenged. Audiences then spite the changing times. and now relate to the play due to “(The show is) one of the most the problems — such as youthful incredible pieces of musical theatre dissent, revolutionary doctrine and ever written. I mean, it’s such a the oppression of minorities — the classic. It’s a beautiful story with show portrays. Despite the struggles beautiful music and a wonderful of Tevye and others in 1905, they cast,” Foytik said.
IF YOU GO
Revamped ‘Wolfman’ predictable but full of thrills to his haunted past and must find a way to stop the vicious killing cycle. While “The Wolfman” is not a Is “The Wolfman” a terrifying horrifying scream-fest, director Joe thriller that triggers your hands to Johnston made sure there was no clutch relentlessly at your armrests shortage of blood and guts. Slashed and that leaves you to suffer many a flesh, intestines, decapitations — I sleepless night? Not quite. It’s easy think I even saw a man’s liver get torn to predict when the next jolt or gasp- out of his abdomen. Yes, each exciting inducing incident is about to flash werewolf appearance is jam-packed across the screen. But “The Wolfman” with enough ooze to make you cringe. is surprisingly entertaining. The creepy factor is also bumped up Although it a notch when is based on the the hair-raising Joe Johnston 1941 classic, delusions of the The Wolfman the storyline, psychologically Universal Studios characters and, tormented of course, the Lawrence add to Rated R special effects the eerie, twisted of “The Wolfatmosphere. man,” have Del Toro’s been revamped epic transforfor a modern mation from portrayal of man to beast lycanthropy. is easily the The story highlight of the begins when film, brought to Lawrence startling veracTalbot (Benicio ity by special Del Toro) effects expert returns to his Rick Baker. On childhood the other hand, home after the romance receiving news between of his brother’s Lawrence and startling his brother’s disappearance. fiancée, Gwen Lawrence’s (Emily Blunt), sinister father seems super(Anthony ficial, carried Hopkins), who by too many Photo courtesy of Universal Studios locked him clichés and unaway in an asylum after his mother’s original confessions of love. The closdeath, still inhabits the dismal estate ing scene, unfortunately, was also a of his youth. But when Lawrence bit trite, leaving the audience with a goes in search of his brother’s corny elegy. whereabouts, he Despite its predictability, “The discovers that Wolfman” delivers an entertaining something more two-hour movie experience. (In than human has its defense, how can a movie not been terrorizing be predictable when the action is the village, and, driven by the recurring appearance from the looks of of the full moon?) Still, sprinkled its victims, it has a ravenous thirst with witty one-liners and some for blood. When Lawrence himself impressive special effects, “The is damned by a vile bite from the Wolfman” is worth spending a few mythical beast, he uncovers secrets extra bucks to see on the big screen.
By Dallas Williamson Arizona Daily Wildcat
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