Surely some critic somewhere must have noticed that Shutter Island is a rip-off of Angel Heart. The spirit of the story, the structuring of scenes, the visual effects, the use of flashbacks, it all hearkens back to the particular genius of  Alan Parker. The problem is Scorsese is just not up to the task of equaling Parker at his own game.

Shutter Island is not a bad film. It’s very mediocre and a bit tiresome, especially once you’ve figured out what’s really going on with Leo’s character in the film. Visually, it’s rather mixed – I liked the look of the grounds of the facility (the old red brick institutional buildings, the abandoned houses, and the hedge-lined country roads) and the over-all setting of the island  (the civil war fort and the Monhegan-like far side of the island with cliffs straight down to the sea.) But I hated the crappy CGI-look of the cliffs, ocean, lighthouse, boat, and the inside of the “fort.”

As for its story, Shutter Island is minimally entertaining. The story is smothered in problematic film-making but basically the fundamental mystery is just barely good enough to keep you engaged throughout the film. The set-up is adequate, but the pacing of the film is quite off – indeed, the film squanders its momentum constantly.

I must say that the supporting acting is pretty bad. The notable exception is Patricia Clarkson, who appears about 3/4 of the way through the movie and in her one scene basically breaths new life into the whole story concept by the shear will of her performance.  She is such a incredibly fine actress! But beyond her, the supporting players range from passable (Ben Kingsley, Max von Sydow) to piss poor (everyone else.) Some of this is the writing and direction, of course.

The main problem with Shutter Island is Martin Scorsese’s artistic vision for the film. He clearly wanted to “do an Angel Heart ” with the film, but Scorsese just has none of Alan Parker’s flair, and comparing Shutter Island to Angel Heart is very instructive in seeing how and where it all went wrong.

Angel Heart was Alan Parker’s last decent film. I’m not claiming that it is a great film – far from it. But I also don’t think that it deserved the ridicule and invective that it has drawn from critics over the years. The basic problem with Angel Heart is that by the standard of the great classics of the 1970’s it looks a little fake and antiseptic, which was a general problem for films in the late 1980’s. Its style also embraces some rather hokey-sounding lines like “the future isn’t what it used to be, Mr Angel,” which have drawn unspeakable critical ire over the years, but which really are no worse than lines for which Quentin Tarantino gets best screenplay Oscar nominations.

Beyond these two “problems” Angel Heart is pretty well-written, interesting, well-paced, well directed and edited, and the performances are for the most part good. Rourke’s performance is fabulous, and you bond with his character in a way that you never do with Leo’s character in Shutter Island. Okay, Lisa Bonet is pretty bad, but she’s wickedly hot and evil and that’s all that really matters in that role. Parker even got a decent (and rather funny) performance out of De Niro, which is really saying something.

But the most striking difference is that Shutter Island comes off as laboring really hard to be creepy, while Angel Heart is the genuine article. Both films employ emotionally evocative flashbacks which hint at the truth that is slowly being revealed, but what a difference in quality! I remember the flashbacks in Angel Heart just sending electric shocks through my nervous system, especially the spectacular way they were edited (remember Parker’s spectacular editing in the original Fame – the man has a gift.) With Shutter Island, the flashbacks are just dull, overly long, overly-melodramatic, overly-gory, and about half of them were probably not even necessary.

Let’s talk music for a second. Shutter Island is a study in how not to set a tone for a movie with music. It’s opening theme (which unfortunately recurs) is like a ponderous monster movie score, and the other music is completely nondescript. Compare this  to Angel Heart, which had two amazing themes: the uniquely haunting (even to this day) main theme with the wailing distant saxophone, and the old Johnny Favorite song played on various out-of- tune pianos. Both are quite fabulous and work beautifully in the context of the story.

Lastly, in their respective endings the difference between the two films could not be more stark. Shutter Island resorts to eventually showing you everything that actually happened in a overly long and melodramatic flashback. Angel Heart, on the other hand, simply has the Ethan Krusemark character tell Mickey Rourke the whole story verbally as they stand in the same room together. It’s a fabulous scene, a great use of monologue to create tension and suspense. My wife did not like Angel Heart very much, but remarked that the final scene with Ethan Krusemark basically made the whole movie worth it, that’s how good it is.

If you’ve never seen Angel Heart, Netflix it and check it out, understanding that despite its virtues it does suffer from that certain visual malaise that settled over almost every film made in the late 1980’s. As for Shutter Island, see it if you are desperate. (I did!) I’ve seen a lot worse, but just don’t expect too much from it.