Unruffled

By AARON MESH

For Shutter Island, Martin Scorsese has finally found an actor who commands the screen with as magnetic a presence as his '70s leads. The problem is that it's not Leonardo DiCaprio, the movie's star: It's Mark Ruffalo. Playing the FBI deputy who keeps deferentially correcting his "boss" that he's not from Portland, Ruffalo is so even-keeled and good-humored that it's easy to forget that it's not him but DiCaprio whose fate is supposed to concern us. In the film's final reveal, Ruffalo's mature demeanor has the unsettling effect of making it seem as though he's been playing a parental game of make-believe all along. R. Academy, Laurelhurst, Valley.

  1. Best paired with: Pabst Blue Ribbon.
  2. Also showing: The Night of the Hunter (Laurelhurst), A Prophet (Academy, Laurelhurst).

WWeek 2015

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