Scorsese Scores!

Rating: 9/10 (8 July 2010)

If you don't like watching films twice, then I suggest you not view SHUTTER ISLAND even once. But if you do, you need to click over to the extra features on the DVD and watch "The Making of Shutter Island." It is here where you will begin to realize how important it is to restart the disc from the beginning.
Shutter Island is a film-within-a-film, about a character-within-a-character. The multiple layers and textures are unbelievably inviting in a very twisted sense. The entire film screams thriller, but after you view it a second time, it'll scream ...something entirely different.
Dividing audiences and critics, Shutter Island reveals itself to probably be too dense for many, but a revelatory success for others; I'm obviously in the latter category.
Leonardo DiCaprio (THE DEPARTED) has rapidly become director Martin Scorsese's muse (and rightfully so). The two have been nearly inseparable since GANGS OF NEW YORK. "Marty" saw something inside Leonardo and knew that he had the acting chops needed for some fairly tough roles. And here, on Shutter Island, Marty gives him his toughest role to date.
As soon as we see Federal Marshals Teddy Daniels (Leonardo) and his partner Chuck Aule (Mark Ruffalo, WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE) arrive on Shutter Island to investigate the disappearance of a mentally deranged prisoner, we get the immediate sense that things are off-balance. The guards look at Teddy and Chuck with great apprehension; their weapons pointed in Teddy and Chuck's general direction.
And as Teddy's investigation winds up, so do clues that don't match up. The possibility of a 67th patient being on the island, even though the warden and his charges claim there are only 66, tips Teddy (and the viewer) off that something is amiss.
The dark edges surrounding the island also leads Teddy into flashbacks of his time in WW II, and into other muted corners of his past that he'd rather not see.
It is these dark corners that intrigue Dr. Cawley (Ben Kingsley, YOU KILL ME) and his partner Dr, Naehring (Max von Sydow, THE SEVENTH SEAL), themselves being psychiatrists. But we quickly garner that these two men are at opposite ends of the same field. And are they fighting each other over Teddy? If so, why? It is here that I'll stop any further possibility of spoilers for those who choose to read this review. And it is also here that I need to reaffirm the requirement that you watch this movie twice. If you do, you'll come away feeling as though you've seen two movies instead of just one.