Take Martin Scorsese, add Leonardo DiCaprio, sprinkle in some psychological thriller and a little Gothic horror and you have Shutter Island. A strange journey into the mind of a man in pursuit of the truth, this movie keeps you guessing until the end. Maybe even after the movie has rolled credits.
I don’t want to give too much away, so I’ll summarize the movie very briefly.
The movie is set in 1954. Teddy Daniels (Leo) is a U.S Marshal and WWII veteran. He and his new partner Chuck (Mark Ruffalo) get assigned to investigate the disappearance of a mental patient from a hospital for the criminally insane on Shutter Island. Once there, Teddy discovers that there may be a conspiracy involving the people who run the institution and how they treat the patients there.
Throughout the movie, Teddy keeps having strange dreams and WWII flashbacks, so I spent a lot of time during the movie wondering what was real, what was he really doing there and how is this going to unfold in the end. It kept my attention and it kept me interested. During the slower parts of the movie, I was busy trying to figure it out, so I didn’t get bored. I did guess the outcome about a third of the way in, but I wasn’t sure. It didn’t stop me from enjoying the movie.
It was an interesting look at how people thought mental patients were treated back then as well; some people will do anything to understand and manipulate the human brain. It takes place a few years after the end of the war, so Teddy draws some parallels between the NAZI experiments and what he thinks may be happening on the island.
I love Scorsese films, and I especially love that he’s taken on DiCaprio as his new DeNiro. When you can secure an actor for all your films as incredibly talented as Leo, you’re set. As a huge fan of both, I am also set. Therefore, this movie was a must see for me. It’s been a while since I’ve looked forward to seeing a movie this much.
I love when a movies makes me think and wonder what’s really going on. I love suspense and stories about interesting criminals. People who have snapped for some reason or another and done something that most of us would never think of doing. So this movie was a winner for me.
DiCaprio was amazing as always. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again; he is not appreciated enough. He’s been nominated for Oscars, sure. But he’s never won it. Lesser actors and actresses have inexplicably walked away with the golden statue.
He’s one of those actors that started young and has always been wonderful. We expect if of him. We take it for granted. I can’t think of a single movie that he wasn’t absolutely amazing in. From “What’s Eating Gilbert Grape” to “Revolutionary Road” he’s given non-stop Oscar worthy performances. Perhaps he should perform miserably in a bad movie and maybe then someone will wake up and realize how great he really is? Then again, he probably wouldn’t compromise his standards. Someday, SOMEDAY, I will get to jump off from my couch with glee at his finally winning the statue.
About 30 min into this movie Scorsese took me to a point where whatever he wanted to show me, I would watch it. Even if I was something I new I didn’t want to see. Teddy ( DeCaprio) wouldn’t stop till it was done, so neither would I. That’s not easy to do.