Shutter Island

Shutter Island is the fourth film that famous director Martin Scorsese and talented actor Leonardo DiCaprio have made together. Their other movies include The Departed (2006), The Aviator (2004) and Gangs of New York (2002). They currently have a fifth movie, The Wolf of Wall Street, that is in the development stages.

Scorsese and DiCaprio’s newest collaboration is based on Dennis Lehane’s 2003 novel with the same title. The screenplay for this much anticipated release was written by Laeta Kalogridis (Pathfinder).

The year is 1954 and a patient from the Ashecliffe Hospital for the Criminally Insane, located on an island near Boston, has mysteriously disappeared. U.S. Marshalls Teddy Daniels (DiCaprio) and Chuck Aule (Mark Ruffalo, Where the Wild Things Are) come to the island to investigate this strange occurrence.

Teddy’s has his own inner demons that he is trying to deal with while he pokes around the island doing his best to find the absent patient. He has regular nightmares about the Nazi concentration camp he saw while he was a soldier during WWII and about his deceased wife Dolores (Michelle Williams, Brokeback Mountain).

Teddy and Chuck meet a staff, lead by Dr. Cawley (Ben Kingsley), that do not seem very interested in helping them. What Dr. Cawley and the rest of his staff do not know is that Teddy is not there to only find a missing patient, but also to blow the lid off a major cover-up that he believes is taking place at the hospital.

Martin Scorsese does a wonderful job at building up the tension throughout the movie. As we watch Teddy and Chuck explore the creepy atmosphere of the hospital and the island, you never know who or what is going to jump out at you.

A prime example is when Teddy wanders around building C, where the most dangerous patients are kept, after a storm knocks out the power and many of these violent shut-ins are still on the loose. Teddy only has a book of matches to help him and there are a lot of shadows.

There was no original music written for this movie, so music supervisor Robbie Robertson (Gangs of New York) picked pre-recorded songs. He did a great job, especially when he selected Symphony #3: Passacaglia – Allegro Moderato performed by the National Polish Radio Symphony. The booming horns and pounding strings are so ominous that you can almost feel the hairs on the back of your neck start to stand up.

Leonardo DiCaprio has no problems showing you why he is one of Hollywood’s top actors. He adeptly shifts his performance from high-to-low and vise versa like a great artist painting a picture. It is hard to believe that one of this talented actor’s early roles was on the TV sitcom Growing Pains and another was in the pitiful horror movie Critters 3.

Although Max Von Sydow , Ted Levine, John Carroll Lynch and especially Jackie Earle Haley’s performances are brief, they are all top-notch. Ben Kingsley is always smooth. Michelle Williams is wonderfully disturbing. Mark Ruffalo is sufficient, but he does not stand out in any way.

I will probably be in the minority with this next statement, but I did not like the ending of this movie. While the conclusion is shocking, to me, it makes the first 2 hours of the movie irrelevant. The story has us on pins and needles most of the way with 2 very plausible outcomes and then suddenly you’re given a surprise ending that you don’t even see coming. The ending destroys the wonderful suspense that has been built-up throughout the movie and you’re left feeling empty.

Despite this very disappointing finish, Shutter Island is still very entertaining and you should positively go see it.