I could tell after watching this film that the marketing guys really didn’t know what to do with it. Every trailer tried to make it out to be a horror flick. However, I think it would be better to classify it as a psychological drama/suspense. I don’t think I have seen something quite like this since VERTIGO. Again, I won’t bore you with a synopsis, so here we go…
What’s good about it: Very fascinating story! I was hooked until the very end and I truly wanted to know what was going to happen. The most important part of this movie is the story…no doubt about it. Everything from the music, to lighting, to performances was to serve the plot. The acting was stellar (Kingsley soared with spectacular subtlety). It is an unconventional Scorsese film in that it is not a character study. He usually centers his work on the protagonist but, in my opinion, we are more interested in the mystery and the motivations than the character himself. While we do examine DiCaprio’s character Teddy Daniels, he is merely the catalyst for the mystery to which we are more interested in. I was just fascinated from start to finish…no other way to say it…
What’s not so good: This one is not for everybody. Very dark subject matter and graphic content. The editing is very stylized and I could definitely see how this could be a turn off to some: cool effects don’t always equal most effective choice. I did not feel the two hours at all; but others have complained about it being too long. And ultimately, the concept takes a big suspension of your disbelief–at the end of it all you really have to choke down the doubts that something like this could actually happen. This is one of those weird films that doesn’t really fit in any category when we try to sell it to the masses: not quite a suspense, not quite an action, not quite an art film, and not for everybody.
I really enjoyed this film and I think I will enjoy it more on a second viewing. I don’t find any fault in Scorsese making his films a bit inaccessible (this is actually his highest grossing film to date and it still didn’t make a ton of money). Filmmakers will love to see this as an example of a master filmmaker handling exceptional material. A-
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