Shutter Island: The Epiphanies of Confinement

In my recent video interview for the University of Oregon's Talk project, I was asked to name one thing I fear. I replied, "an enclosed space." I've always been somewhat claustrophobic. Recently the First Lady of Inkville and I were walking in the woods here in western Oregon, and we came upon a damp playground situated in a quiet campground. I remarked that the cement tubes painted in bright pastels, placed near the swings for children to crawl through, had always given me the creeps as a kid.

Back in the city, we watched a trio of films that, coincidentally, each address notions of confinement, claustrophobia, and the epiphanies that arise from confronting oneself in a closed system. Be forewarned, for herein lie mild spoilers for Shutter Island, Coraline, and, yes, believe it or not, Couples Retreat.

Scorsese's noir Shutter Island is a lush, beautiful film. It's not the visual confection of Coraline or Amelie, but the saturated color, beautiful stars, and unforgiving, verdant landscape are visually compelling. And while Shutter Island is, indeed, frightening, it's not the slasher thriller the trailer makes it out to be; its heart-in-the-throat thrills derive as much from the plot's implications for its protagonist's life and lifestyle, as from any shadowy boogeymen.

The film opens on a Boston harbor ferryboat in 1954, with a pair of U.S. marshals, a surprisingly likable Leo DiCaprio and the reliably wry Mark Ruffalo, assigned to investigate the disappearance of a violent escapee from an island mental institution. What they uncover, of course, is not so straightforward.

With its forbidden zones, violent secrets, abandoned facilities, and requisitely spooky graveyard, the closed system of the Shutter Island prison is as much a stand-in for the human mind as it is an actual filmic environment. This is a "locked room" mystery adventure writ large, and it's only through the DiCaprio character's' submersion into his own psyche that said mystery can be solved. Along the way, the protagonist must abandon his detective smarts, and ultimately, his very identity, to emote his way through a maze where logic fails. Eventually he must face the reality of what Shutter Island represents for him personally, and, related, what sort of man he has become. It is only through the confinement, the enclosure, of the island that DiCaprio's character is able to grow.

The stop-motion cartoon Coraline, based on a young adult novel by comics legend Neil Gaiman, explores much the same territory. In the mold of Alice, Wendy, and Dorothy (the saucy "Lost Girls trio"), the plucky preteen heroine, brought to life through Dakota Fanning's usual expressive and precocious performance, is transported from a humdrum existence in a boring 'real world' she loathes, to a land of delightful wonders and hidden dangers, in which virtually every  character, prop, and set piece is symbolic of some facet of her own inner life. (And like Alice, if not Dorothy and Wendy, Coraline is sometimes a bit of a bitch.)

Indeed, Coraline does Alice and her looking-glass one better: in Coraline the otherworld is a mirror opposite of her own, with a corresponding house, parents, and neighbors. Everything's the same, only... better.

It's a trap, of course, and Coraline quickly finds herself stranded in a world much more isolated than the remote, tree-lined, Oregonian estate about which she initially complained at the film's beginning... her new digs simply fade to a Phantom Zone-style blankness when she runs from the rambling old Victorian that serves as the plot's primary stage. The filmmakers use snow globes and, reasonably enough, mirrors to serve as visual symbols of Coraline's new fish tank-style entrapment, both of which are eventually broken as the villain's nefarious plot unwinds. And, as in Shutter Island, the protagonist uses her stranded state as an opportunity to gauge her own inner compass, a chance to plumb the mental resources she carries with her everywhere she goes. Unlike Scorsese's picture, however, Coraline's self-agency and eventual salvation lie in thinking, rather than feeling.

The protagonists of the goofball date movie Couples Retreat are also expected to feel, rather than think, their way out of an otherworld confinement they willingly entered. But the 'snow globe' in this case is very different from Coraline's leaky, creaky house: Vince Vaughan, Malin Akerman, et al find themselves on a lush, tropic island, replete with beautiful vistas, delicious food, and abounding leisure options.

As in Shutter Island and Coraline, however, the characters quickly realize that their new world, in which they assumed they exerted ultimate control, is an environment with strict, arcane rules, forbidden zones, and only one way out: that pesky self-reflection.

Towards its end, Couples Retreat evolves (or devolves, if you're no friend of Joseph Campbell) into a pastiche of the epic quests and hero's journeys of self-discovery typified by films like Shutter Island and Coraline, as Vaughan and his frattish band of merry men sneak onto the "singles' side" of their island prison in search of one of their number lured away by the promise of an all-night tropical dance orgy. A product placement Guitar Hero tournament stands in for knightly combat, while the island's peculiar geography leads one character to urge Vaughan to heed a cryptic, Tolkien-esque oracle's warning. The perils and pitfalls of these nocturnal shenanigans are mirrored in the group's daytime pursuits of the mind and spirit: couple's therapy.

As in Shutter Island and Coraline, these trappings of folklore are all part of the protagonists' ultimate goal: taking stock of one's own interior world, all the better to greet the external, 'real' world, and one's worldview, with internal resources at the ready. To draw a perhaps obvious, but definitely ironic, conclusion: it is through confinement these characters eventually find release.

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm off to meditate in a creepy cement tube on the playground...

Comments

[James Stegall]

I liked Shutter Island even though its critical reception wasn't great. I think the film built a great sense of dread and the set design was top notch. As long as you accept the twist from the beginning, it's a great ride.

Couples Retreat though. Oh god. Why would you subject your friends to the tedious torture of marriage counseling while ruining a potentially great vacation at the same time? Also, the big dude shouldn't have take this wife back.

[Free Movies Online]

I watched this movie last night and the movie was masterpiece. It makes your blood run cold and delivers explosive twist and turns. One of the coolest and most compelling thrillers.

[Aaron Ragan-Fore]

Thanks so much for your comment, Beth! Coming from you, this means a lot.

[Beth Davies-Stofka]

Wow, you provided the best spoiler-free plot summary of Shutter Island that I could imagine. And I never would have seen this compelling similarity between these three movies. Very, very nicely done!