stylistically complex, sophisticated psychological thriller

Rating: 9/10 (16 June 2011)

Martin Scorsese's "Shutter Island" is a psychological thriller done in a florid, grand opera style.
Leonardo DiCaprio and Mark Ruffalo play two federal marshals circa the 1950s who've been sent to an isolated institute for the criminally insane, run by Max Von Sydow and Ben Kingsley, to investigate the mysterious disappearance of one of the patients there, a Medea-like figure who killed her own children a number of years back. DiCaprio's character is also haunted by memories and dreams of his young wife (Michelle Williams) who died in a fire, and by his own traumatizing experience liberating Dachau at the close of World War II. The two investigators soon discover that everything is not quite what it appears to be on Shutter Island and that indeed something quite nefarious and sinister may be going on there.
Ever the agent provocateur, Scorsese brings a healthy dose of his trademarked purple-prose filmmaking style to the proceedings. He sets his tale against a backdrop of howling winds, crashing waves and falling trees, punctuated by thundering chords pounding away on the soundtrack. It may make the movie seem preposterously pretentious at first, but we soon learn that there is a method to Scorsese's madness, as what appears initially to be gratuitous showmanship on the part of the director becomes an integral part of the work once the details of the story emerge.
This theme of who-is-truly-mad-and-who-is-truly-sane in this world has been played out many times before in the movies, but "Shutter Island" brings a level of sophistication to it that is really quite impressive. The movie keeps us guessing at every stage of the drama, with the twists and turns of the storyline drawing us ever deeper into the surrealistic, fractured world it's created for itself.
DiCaprio and Ruffalo both turn in outstanding performances, but this is Scorsese's movie all the way.