Shutter Island

[certainthings]

I watched it. I have spoilers, especially for the ending ... okay, pretty much all for the ending.

I enjoyed it. Mostly. But uh. I hate when they promote movies like that and voice over guy is all, 'With an ending you'll never see coming. Ever. It will shock and awe you. For realz,  yo.'

Because then ... the ending doesn't do that at all.

Leo's character being a patient? Not surprising.

Having Kate Winslet dreaming the whole thing? That would've surprised me.

Having Leo's character be an alien who was making all those people crazy? That too probably would've surpised me.

Having the whole thing take place in the belly of a whale? Might be suprising.

Right. So, I actually figured out not that long into the movie what the ending was but even when they revealed that he was in face a patient, I kept on waiting for something else to happen, for something more because surely that couldn't be all there was to it.

And a small part of me is still a little bit convinced that I missed something and there was a surprise, shock and awe, holy shit that just blew my mind - ending.

Comments

[hkath.livejournal.com]

Ooh, I like onlywordsnow's theory. Much cooler. But I think people actually *will* be surprised, and I say that very cynically as someone who worked in a videostore for ten years. Audiences are dead dumb about those kinds of twist endings. Dude, when I went to see The Lake House with my co-worker (she forced me!) and I turned to her twenty minutes in and said, "The guy in the accident's gonna be Keanu," it completely blew her mind. To the point where after it turned out to *be* Keanu, she starting telling everyone she knew how I was, like, psychic or something. *facepalm*

Which is not to say she's not a smart girl! Just that I think a great majority of the audience of those kinds of movies don't actually like to think about structure or plot or any of those things. I don't know if it's that they want to be surprised, so they deliberately don't try to figure things out, or if they're just oblivious to the patterns that are obvious to the rest of us, but either way, it'll sell out its first 3 weekends at the videostores, no problem.

[certainthings.livejournal.com]

I agree with this because I'm certain I would have been surprised if Voice Over Guy hadn't told me that there was an "ending you'll never see coming." or however it was worded. Just. When someone says there's a surprise then it's a surprise, yanno?

[onlywordsnow.livejournal.com]

Psychological thrillers leave room for perception, that's why they're great.