A masterpiece. A conspiracy and psychological thriller that will have you hooked.

Rating: 10/10 (23 April 2010)

Shutter Island for me is the years best film so far. Leonardo Decaprio gives an outstanding performance as US Marshall Teddy Daniels set in 1954. Him and his partner Chuck Aule played excellently by Mark Ruffalo are on their way to Shutter Island, a closed off psychiatric prison for the criminally insane. Teddy and Chuck have been set to investigate the disappearance of a female prisoner who has escaped though the guards or doctors don't know how she escaped from the room. Arriving at the prison Scorsese sets up the tone of a dark, disturbing and mysterious place using non-diegetic sound and a haunting music score (one of the scariest I have heard) to deliberately unsettle us and it dosen't help when Teddy and Chuck have to surrender their firearms at the main gate. As Teddy and Chuck investigate the prisoner's disappearance their investigation leads them to believe there may be a sixty seventh (being only sixty sixth) in the first place. He begins to believe that the doctors and guards are conspiring in a conspiracy when they prove less than co-operative particularly the head doctor Crawley a superb part played by Ben Kingsley.
Meanwhile as the investigation progresses Teddy and Chuck are shut off from the mainland due to a thunderstorm and Teddy has disturbing dreams of his dead wife and seeing images of dead children, which leaves him on a short fuse as also he is a recovering alcoholic. As the film progresses things get stranger and you know something is going on. This is fantastically told film with a complex plot (and a twist in the last half hour that shocked me to the core) superb acting and intelligent dialogue and script. Decaprio has been severely criticised by some for his acting but this is the best performance I have ever seen him give (even better than in Titanic) and he deserves at least an Oscar nomination. Shutter Island is an intriguing and complex thriller that will keep you guessing to the end with excellently acting and making. This is a masterpiece and will remain if the not the best then one of the best movies of the year and ever. If you like intellectual stimulation or a challenging mystery. I implore you to see this. Outstanding.