As stormy and dark as Shutter Island is, it seemed to be the place to be this past weekend. The ominous, R-rated insane asylum thriller blew a kiss to star-laden Valentine’s Day as it rushed past with hurricane force—netting a whopping $40.2 million and the top of the box office.
This was the biggest opening weekend ever for both director Martin Scorsese and his star Leonardo DiCaprio. Scorsese’s previous big dog was the Academy Award-winning crime drama The Departed, with $26.9 million on its opening weekend. And DiCaprio’s best opening take before this, including Titanic, was $30.1 million for 2002’s Catch Me if You Can.
Now, as the Plugged In reviewer, I’ve got to say that this is one of those flicks that has its appeal. Being an Alfred Hitchcock fan, I can’t help but see stylistic fingerprints of the old master all over this well-crafted psychological twister. It’s just unfortunate that Scorsese couldn’t have taken some other cues from some Hitchcock classics and restrained from the bloody, foul-mouthed slurry he ended up shellacking this chunk of celluloid with.
Call me old fashioned, but I’d rather see heroes scaling precariously on the faces of Mount Rushmore any day.
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