A mediocre film with a superior setting

Rating: 6/10 (4 March 2010)

The main reason I was looking forward to viewing Shutter Island was not that Scorsese was directing it (although that was part of it), but it was the fact that from the moment I viewed the trailer I was captivated by the environment of the island itself. The idea of Shutter Island is the same as Alcatraz, and it makes for a very interesting concept. Even if the inmates escape from their cell, they are still in prison. You can only leave Shutter Island if the guards allow it. The setting of the prison itself is what makes this film worthwhile. With this in mind I believe Shutter Island would have been better if Scorsese had focused more on the history of the island instead of on the mind of the main character.
If you are considering going to see Shutter Island I would strongly recommend heading to the theater with a clear head. This film is one hell of a puzzle to say the least. Fortunately the film has a clever ending, which saves it from becoming a maze with no way out. Although there are a lot of scenes and characters that I felt were not necessary to the story, the twist at the end and the strength of the first 45 minutes, in which the audience learns about the history of Shutter Island as well as Teddy Daniel's (Leonardo Dicaprio) disturbing past are worth the price of admission.
The film begins with Federal Officers Teddy Daniels and Chuck Aule arriving by boat to Shutter Island, a location reserved for only the most dangerous mentally disturbed convicts in America. They have been assigned to investigate the disappearance of a disturbed murderer named Rachel, who became a patient at Shutter Island after she murdered her three children. From this point on every sequence is part of the puzzle and I don't want to risk giving anything away. Similar to any puzzle, Shutter Island can get frustrating at times, but once you put together the missing pieces you feel satisfied after it is complete.
Overall, Shutter Island is a beautifully shot film by perhaps the best director of our time. Unfortunately, the plot of the film throws too much at the audience to be considered a classic psychological horror film. Filming the human mind is a complex task which few directors have ever been able to pull off and despite making the hallucination sequences interesting, Scorsese fails at intertwining them within the story itself. So despite not being in the same league as some of Scorsese's other works (Raging Bull, Goodfellas, The Departed), Shutter Island is still better than most recently released thrillers.