Shutter Island Review

Written by: MistressOf Horror   

Shutter Island, a  Scorsese  film that simply amazes and is a visual treat !

please, let me start by saying I will in no way give any spoilers and I absolutely advise all of you to stay away from spoilers before you see this movie.  I actually read the novel that the movie was based on by author Dennis Lehane months ago, so I went in knowing what to expect. And yet, I was still blown away by this movie .I can only imagine the effect this movie had on people who saw this with no idea of what to expect.
 
Leonardo DiCaprio stars as Federal Marshal Teddy Daniels, a hard-ass cop who gets called out to a remote psychiatric ward off the New Engla. It’s a facility where dangerous insane inmates are subjected to unique “treatments” by the suspicous Dr. Cawley (Ben Kingsley) and his loyal staff of physicians, nurses and armed guards.

Teddy arrives on Shutter Island a very seasick man, with his new partner Chuck (Mark Ruffalo), determined to get to the bottom of a case involving a female inmate,Rachel, who apparently has vanished from her cell without a trace. Rachel is unstable and dangerous.

Teddy and Chuck start asking questions, but they don’t get answers. Nobody on the island seems to want to talk – not the staff, not the patients, and certainly not Dr. Cawley or his partner, Dr. Naehring ( Max von Sydow).Important records are being kept confidential, and Teddy and Chuck –  soon begin to wonder about the mess they’ve stumbled into.

As the two Marshals dig deeper, Teddy begins to come apart; He starts having crazy dreams and waking hallucinations of his dead wife Dolores (Michelle Williams), As his mind starts slipping, Teddy realizes that Dr. Cawley and his island of many , many secrets may be a dangerous place for them to be. Trusting no one but his partner and himself, Teddy sets off to kick down the locked doors of the Island and discover the truth.

Shutter Island is a psychological drama that is far deeper and more complex than most mystery/suspense film. It is one of the most visually rich Scorsese films that I’ve seen since in a very long time. The photography and cinematography are simply gorgeous and the dream/hallucinations sequences were excellent. .  There were a few problems with editing, but this is a very hard story to tell on film.

The actors had challenging roles to play. And I feel DiCaprio, Kingsley and Ruffalo did well with the multi-layered performances of characters