When Tendulkar is at prime form what do we want him to do? Take on the best bowlers - previously it was Akram, Waqar, McGrath, Warne, later Lee and Akthar and now, Dale Steyn. That's what precisely Scorsese has done. He has taken an extremely challenging story and given it in a way that will blow your mind away.
Warning: Please do not wikipedia the movie or read the book. I did not and I enjoyed the movie. Beware of some spoilers below
Teddy Daniels (DiCaprio) is a Federal Marshall, a war hero from WW II who is assigned to investigate a disappearing person from the Ashecliffe Hospital for the Criminally Insane along with another deputy marshall, Chuck Aule (Mark Ruffalo). The hospital is situated on an island (source of title) whose only connection to the outside world is a ferry controlled by the authorities on the Island - Dr. John Cawley (Ben Kingsley) and his police force. Teddy suspects that the folks on the island are engaged in some unethical activities with patients they are supposed to treat there. Teddy sees that most of the folks on the island are either insane or are coached to act/lie to him. Parallely, some of his past comes back to haunt him as well - his wife's death in particular. And on top of all this, Teddy's migraine get worser by the hour.
The movie now enters a vortex and the twist that comes is a master twist, though it has many 'clues' in the scenes before the actual twist.
The screenplay and direction are terrific. They cause the intended effect on the viewer. The subtle background score raises the tempo and keeps you on the guessing game till the director chooses to reveal his cards. The cinematography, again, chooses to be pliant to the story's needs :)
On the acting front, it is a 2 man show - DiCaprio and Kingsley and both of them try to out do each other. DiCaprio, after Departed, Blood Diamond, Revolutionary Road and now S.I is firmly on track to join the league of celebrated actors.
I'm constrained to not write more as I do not want to give away anything (spoil the movie for most of you). But if you want to really to come out of the theater thinking "Whoa! What did I just see back there??!!", think about this review!
Bottom Line: Haven't you checked when it is releasing in your locale yet? And if it is already released, haven't you booked for the next show?
No comments:
Post a Comment