I've been bombarded with advertisements for that new Scorsese movie, Shutter Island, all month long. It might be the shows I watch and the fact that I'm lazy with the fast forward button on my DVR, but it's also because I'm utterly fascinated by Leonardo DiCaprio's goofy Bawston accent, fleshy yet youthful face, and 50s getup complete with fedora that makes him look like a high school kid playing dress up for a school play. Don't get me wrong; I like Leo in most everything I've seen him in. I just think people overrate his abilities to pull off certain roles, such as any role that requires you to take him seriously as an adult. He always pulls me out of the illusion of the movie's world with his adolescent face and his overly intense stares. Well, that and his generally questionable accents, i.e. Blood Diamond, the Departed... I suppose he's starting to age into his face; but much like Robert Downey, Jr., he needs to really wait until he's around 40 before I'll ever take him seriously as a lead hero type.

This new movie, Shutter Island, looks like a generic mind-fuck thriller set in the 50s because, well, the outfits were cool. Just from watching the previews, I can tell the movie is going to either end in a massive conspiracy outed, or Leo's character is crazy and hallucinated everything. Since I already know the only two possible outcomes, will the movie still be enjoyable? If you love movies, you know that is a resounding yes. Movies are enjoyable because they have unique cinematography, contain entertaining performances, and are well written; usually in that order. There are plenty of mindless movies with wooden performances and stilted dialogue that remain fun and entertaining the watch; most of Schwarzenegger's movies of the 80s come to mind. Still, if a movie contains those three elements, it is generally going to be a great movie that you can watch over and over again.

While those three elements will make a great movie, they do not make a rewatchable movie. Often, this is where the theme of the movie comes into play. For example, the recent George Clooney film, Up in the Air, contained all three of those elements. The framing of the scenes added much to the feel and success to the audience's investment in the story, Clooney is better than he's probably ever been in anything, not to mention Vera Farmiga and Anna Kendrick's amazing performances, and the script is at turns, funny, sad, and poignant. I would say it's one of the better movies I saw this year, but I have no desire to ever watch it again. Why, you ask? Okay, I asked myself, but I enjoy talking to myself. Bear with me. The theme of the movie was extraordinarily depressing, and the main character was a shallow, failure of a man. Much of the movie revolves around people being fired and having their entire lives upended and potentially destroyed. Unless you have an acute case of schadenfreude, I can't imagine wanting to see this again. Great tragedies are usually warning calls to not get caught up in hubris and arrogance and are demonstrated using interesting, deep, and powerful characters who have something to lose. Clooney's character is lacking all these things. Hence, he has nothing to lose. In fact, every other character in the movie is far more interesting, which I suppose was the point the director was trying to make. It's probably why Clooney was so good at pulling off a shallow existence; it seems to mirror his own. While the film was entirely successful at getting across what it wanted, it was in no way an experience people would want to revisit.

What does this have to do with Leo and his Shuttah Ahhhland movie? I'm wondering if it's worth it. Scorsese has a history of making movies in that fashion I've described. Well filmed, great performances by outstanding actors, tight scripting and dialogue, as well as being a movie you'd rather do most anything else than sit through again. While I'm hardly a Scorsese expert, I've seen a good chunk of movies that he's made. I'll go through them tomorrow and see which ones were good to greatas well as which ones are rewatchable, and we'll see if my theory matches the reality of my experiences with his movies.