Leaves you speechless

Rating: 9/10 (23 January 2020)

Shortly after I watched the Black Swain, I knew I had to watch another movie like it. I was hooked. Through the many different plot points, its ability to tell a story behind the actual story, and an ending that would surround your every thought for the rest of the day, psychological thrillers like Shutter Island interested me. The next step was watching the movie and to put it honestly, Shutter Island lives up to its genre perfectly. My rating for Shutter Island is 4.5/5 stars. Now let's go through exactly why 4.5/5 stars is appropriate but, before we get into this review, a spoiler warning is needed!

Shutter Island was directed by Martin Scorsese and is based off of Dennis Lehane's book with the same name. It is normal to read a book that truly catches your attention throughout and be disappointed with its movie nowadays. Shutter Island however pleasantly surprises you. Its suspenseful sound track keeps you on the edge of your seats throughout the movie. The movie ultimately centers around a detective, played by Leonardo DiCaprio, searching around a mental hospital in order to find a missing patient who killed his wife. Throughout the movie Martin Scorsese does an excellent job of evoking a lack of knowing from the audience. Even though it seems like a straightforward plot, Scorsese includes details and scenes that gave me a clue that not everything is how it seems. These scenes include innovative camera angles and intense sounds that gave me a hint that something big was coming. Specifically these sounds grew an intense atmosphere and changed the normal tone of the movie and made it feel like i was watching a movie within the movie. I was very very confused. It wasn't until the ending that I was able to understand all the details. The ending drops a weight on your head and makes you rethink every scene in the entire movie. An ending to rival "The Empire Strikes Back" and no, i'm not saying someone is the dad. The ending showed that the inmate the detective is searching for is indeed himself. I am normally very good at guessing endings of movies but I was totally unprepared for this reveal. This reveal made a second viewing of the film a must and had me rewatching it as soon as I finished it. The second time I watched it, it felt like I was watching a different movie. All the scenes that didn't make sense suddenly painted a new story within the story. I was very impressed. The final scene in Shutter Island left us with an amazing quote. "Which would be worse, to live as a monster or to die as a good man?" This has stayed with me much longer than I imagined and is still a question I find myself thinking to this day. A very powerful way to end a movie. In conclusion, Shutter Island took me on a roller coaster throughout its 2 hours and 19 minutes of screen time and has earned a 4.5/5 stars!