Marshall and the Movies

For better or for worse, February is here.  It’s now out with 2009 and in with 2010 (save “Avatar” and a few big Oscar movies).

It’s not a particularly dense month for releases.  Whenever I was making my February preview post, I noticed that it took significantly less time to write.

Yet the readers have spoken up and still found something they want to see.  One person voted for “A Prophet,” a finalist for the  Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.  Another voted for “Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief,” which wins my vote for the most verbose title of the year.

But by the widest margin ever, the most anticipated movie of February 2010 is…

“Shutter Island.”

In my February preview, I said:

The only major release this week is all we need.  ”Shutter Island” had me at Martin Scorsese, and it only gets better.  With a cast of Leonardo DiCaprio, Mark Ruffalo, Ben Kinglsey, Michelle Williams, Emily Mortimer, Jackie Earle Haley, Patricia Clarkson, and Max Von Sydow, this could be one of the earliest that one of my favorite movies is released in the year.

How nice it will be to have an Oscar-caliber movie released in February!  When we all grow weary of debating “The Hurt Locker” vs. “Avatar,” we have this as a fantastic diversion.

In the interest of preserving the experience, I won’t talk too much about the plot.  However, it involves two U.S. federal marshals(DiCaprio, Ruffalo) investigating the disappearance of a patient from an institution for the criminally insane.  The story involves unrest among the inmates and a hurricane.  Draw your own conclusions.

I just hope that its February release date doesn’t make it too distant of a memory come awards season.  If it is as good as some of Scorsese’s previous efforts, I will be tooting the horn all year long.  So prepare yourself.