I don’t think there would be many challenges adapting this book into a movie. Shutter Island seems like one of those books that was written to be a movie. I think the only challenge would be to be able to capture the creepy and eeriness of the book. The island itself needs to just look off, like something isn’t right about it. And all of the people need to have a feel to them that makes you weary of their character. To make this happen I think that personality and appearance changes of the characters should be kept to a minimum. They’re what adds to the feel of the plot and without it you would almost never guess that something is not right with the facility. If changes with them did have to be made then it should only be done to the way they look, because then at least you can still judge their personality by their dialogue and the way they interact with each other.
One scene that I think would be essential to keep would be when Teddy and Chuck interview the patients to find out where Rachel is. It’s important because it is the only chance you get to hear from the patients and find out what they have to say. This is the part where Teddy starts to develop a hunch that people are scripted, since one of the patients says something almost word for word from what Dr. Cawley had said earlier.
Another vital scene is when Teddy talks to Noyce. Noyce says some things that are really important when it comes to the ending of the book, and cutting this conversation out would almost eliminate that ‘oohhh’ feeling you get when you realize the twist at the end. The movie didn’t leave this out, and I thought they did a good job with it because it definitely got the point of the dialogue across and then they referenced to it at the end.
The last scene I would want to be kept would be one of the last ones where Dr. Cawley tries to explain to Teddy that he in face it Andrew Laeddis. Obviously, the movie didn’t cut this out since it’s the whole ending, but they didn’t really change any of the dialogue which I thought was important. This part could be a bit confusing as your try to comprehend it, so the more dialogue they keep the better chance you have at completely being able to wrap your mind around the idea.
If a scene had to be cut I think it would be fine if it were the one where the two marshals and the two orderlies were playing cards in their room. I didn’t really see much point to it in the book, and without it the plot would still make sense. All that I had gotten out of it was that Chuck was good at reading people and being able to decide if they were bluffing or not.
Another scene the movie could do without is when Teddy wakes up after having his migraine to find Dr. Cawley watching him as he slept. This part didn’t have any importance to me, and as long as they got across the point that Teddy gets migraines, this scene wouldn’t be needed. All it does is add to your suspicions of Cawley, but I think there are already enough parts in the book that you would be fine if this wasn’t included.
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