Yet another dusty thing from 2010 I’ve recently unearthed. A movie review – Shutter Island

What if my whole universe turned out to be a delusion ? Is it possible that the good person I think I am has always been a big fat lie ? Does this all really exist or is it only a giant hallucination ? This is the kind of questions you ask yourself when the ending credits appear on the screen. When Martin Scorsese (Taxi Driver, Goodfellas, Casino, The Departed to name but a few) works on a novel by Dennis Lehane (Mystic River, Gone Baby Gone), the result is bound to be explosive. And Shutter Island doesn’t disappoint.

Let’s rewind. Shutter Island, Ashecliff Hospital for the so-called criminally insane, 1954. US Marshal Teddy Daniels (Leonardo DiCaprio) and his partner Chuck Aule (Mark Ruffalo) set foot on this island, which is not exactly the ideal holiday destination, in order to find a missing patient, Rachel Solando (Emily Mortimer). However, we quickly understand that Teddy’s real aim has nothing to do with that particular investigation and that Dr Cawley (Ben Kingsley) is hiding what’s really going on (or not going on, for that matter). The original (wo)manhunt turns into a quest of the self, a desperate search for sanity in an insane world. A world where the real lunatics are not necessarily easy to find once we’ve gone beyond the obvious. In the end, the concepts of truth, reality and identity have become blurry at best. Just when you thought Lost was the best a director could do with an island…

In a perfect horror movie setting (a bit too much so, as a matter of fact… What are the odds of a storm destroying all communication devices on an isolated island full of dangerous maniacs and surrounded by deadly cliffs ? Please.) vaguely reminiscent of Stephen King’s The Shining, Martin Scorsese skillfully directs his way through a highly twisted plot with the help of his now usual accomplice Leonardo DiCaprio (their fourth collaboration after Gangs of New York, The Aviator and The Departed), as brilliant and troublesome as ever since he reached the grown-up stage (I’m talking about the post-Titanic period) in his interpretation of a tortured widower scarred by what he discovered in the Dachau concentration camp and his wife Dolores (Michelle Williams)’s death. Through the eyes of its main character, the movie oscillates between nightmares and reality until we can no longer tell them apart. The only thing remaining in the end is that once you’re considered out of your mind, it’s forever and no one will ever listen to you again. Even the viewers will eventually doubt your word in their cozy movie theater seats. But don’t take my… word for it, go watch it !

Article published in MUSE in April 2010.

Picture: By Siebbi (Leonardo DiCaprio) [CC-BY-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0)%5D, via Wikimedia Commons

A book review – Tyler Hamilton’s The Secret Race

So you think that all dopers are just cheats who have no idea how to behave in a sporting environment? Think again and pick up Tyler Hamilton’s The Secret Race. Especially if you’re an inconsistent reader and you’ve been having trouble getting around to finishing a book that was not your course notes or your daily newspaper lately. This will cure you. You’ll find yourself dragged into the darkest meanders of the cycling world. If you’re a cycling fan and used to watch the seemingly superhuman feats accomplished by Lance Armstrong, Jan Ullrich and their generation, this book is for you. You’ll relive these riders’ achievements through Hamilton’s eyes with a mixture of awe, disgust and (especially) disbelief. If you don’t have the slightest clue about cycling, this book is also for you. Indeed, it reads like spy fiction littered with dramatic moments. Let me rephrase: the whole book is a dramatic moment that doesn’t let up until you breathlessly reach the last stage – sorry, the last page.

After reading these brilliantly written memoirs, you will feel an urge to watch the Armstrong confession or Hamilton’s latest interviews. Whatever you do, don’t do that before reading the book. Indeed, and he says it himself (although in more neutral terms), Hamilton is an appallingly bad speaker and he therefore does his cause few favors by defending it orally. Watching him answer a journalist’s questions makes you desperately want to reach out and help him find his words more quickly. However, with Daniel Coyle’s help, he manages to turn these embarrassingly clumsy words into the yellow jersey of narratives.

Don’t get me wrong, doping is and will always be cheating and coming up with the truth (yes, I know what you’re thinking, is that even the truth?) after lying consistently for years doesn’t erase anything. However, those of you who are prone to preemptive criticism, please give Hamilton a chance to defend himself before you throw his unopened book into the patented liars drawer. While racing through the chapters of this compelling page-turner as if the whole Tour de France peloton was on your heels, not only will you discover what’s going on behind the scenes, how important « training » and « therapy » are and that the protagonist of every main event is a guy called Edgar (not to mention Ferrari, Ufe and Nick) but you’ll also realize that it’s a little too easy to be harshly critical of these guys climbing mountains on their bikes « loaded to the gills » (the guys, not the bikes) when sitting comfortably on your couch. Indeed, with a little more insight (duly provided by Hamilton) into the doping culture and the incredible omertà that have prevailed since the 1990s, you might want to cut Tyler, Floyd & Co. some slack. They were no saints, far from it, but they were no criminal masterminds either. Except maybe one. Lance Armstrong is depicted by his ex-lieutenant as the ultimate manipulative douchebag and this is one of the aspects that make for a riveting read.

No, Tyler Hamilton doesn’t hesitate to name names. No, this book is « not normal », as Lance would have it. But yes, most of these Tour contenders were just regular guys minding their own business before getting caught in the (largely UCI-sanctioned) system. That’s why, ultimately, I don’t think I’d be crossing the Rubicon of human decency if I left you with this crucial question: what would you do? But hey, read the book before answering.

Picture: By Matt Knoth, from Flickr (Flickr) [CC-BY-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)%5D, via Wikimedia Commons