A dark psychological thriller, set in the institution for the criminally insane on Shutter Island off the Massachusetts coast.

Rating: Null/10 (29 July 2010)

The story is set in 1954, within easy memory of World War 2. While it is in color, but with subdued colors, it evokes memories of the 1940s and 1950s film noir genre.
A prisoner named Rachel has escaped and two US Marshals are on the ferry to Shutter Island, dispatched to help investigate the incident. Things become even more complicated when a storm, which they refer to as a hurricane, hits.
Leonardo DiCaprio is certainly good and convincing as US Marshal Teddy Daniels. The Marshal with him, and who refers to Teddy as "boss", is Mark Ruffalo as Chuck Aule.
In the institution are Ben Kingsley as the head doctor, Dr. John Cawley. Another doctor is Max von Sydow as Dr. Jeremiah Naehring. Ted Levine with his ominous voice is the Warden. John Carroll Lynch, who was Marge's husband in "Fargo", is Deputy Warden McPherson.
As Teddy gets inside the gates of the institution we notice that his treatment by the staff is a bit unusual. Yet when he requests information, or a meeting with others, it is usually provided for him, but it appears with some reluctance.
This is a very good mystery, and one where seeing it a second time can give the viewer a whole different perspective.
MAJOR SPOILERS follow, where I explain my take on the whole movie. There probably are other explanations that are plausible. Please read no further if you have not seen the movie.
This is an example of a story with an unreliable narrator, otherwise it cannot make sense. Daniels is that unreliable narrator. He tells others that his wife died from smoke inhalation in their apartment, but later we find out that is a made-up memory to mask what really happened. We also find out that Daniels isn't is real name, it also has been made up to mask unpleasant memories, his real name is Laeddis. His wife was Michelle Williams as Dolores Chanal, we only see her in flashbacks. After the fire in their apartment they moved to a Lake House, where Daniels (Laeddis) comes home to find she had drowned their children, and in a fit of passion he killed her. He is not a US Marshal, he has been a patient for the criminally insane for two years. In a last-ditch effort to get him to recognize and live with reality, his "visit as a Marshall" was set up, and his partner was really his primary psychiatrist. In the end it didn't work, he was still not dealing with reality and what must have been an accepted procedure in 1954, was last seen headed for the lighthouse where a partial lobotomy was to be preformed. In the alternate explanation, he DID realize who he really was and acted like he didn't in effect choosing the lobotomy because he couldn't live with the reality.