Don't believe in the doctors' lies!!

Rating: 9/10 (16 March 2010)

It is one of those movies which forces you to think.. probably better watched in the second time.. it is because we are not used to think in the Hollywood's cinema.
This is movie is a great and pleasing surprise.. and probably you gonna get out of the theater without understanding it.. the movie is a big puzzle with the Marshal's memories as pieces of it. Pay attention from the beginning to the end to understand it.
***** spoilers ***** For me, it is clear what happened.. but the most interesting is that the director wants you to believe in the doctors' lies.. so every dialog is made for you to believe them.. cause they are in charge of driving conversation. But Teddy's memories contradict what they have been telling him..
What happened in the island, and lots will disagree, is the following: The Marshall came to the island with his assistant George Noyce, he is after a murderess that disappeared, but has the intention as well of finding his wife's murderer. He and his assistant find out what has been happening in the island: it is a big brainwashing laboratory.. but, since they are marshals in service, they are drugged by the doctors and go into a brainwash program to forget all about it. The two marshals are isolated from each other and Teddy is told that one of the island's doctor is his assistant called Chuck. He confidenced his feelings to that doctor as he probably did to his actual marshal assistant earlier, and then they use that information about his life to make Teddy even more confused. Teddy's mind resists bravely to that brainwash, sometimes escaping from their lies more or less effectively.. but his mind still confuses his actual partner with the crazy doc and they can use that to see if Teddy is managing to react to the brainwash. They just can't let the Marshal out of the island with the truth.
One example is that Teddy is told he's a violent man (a man of violence), but it is a lie.. how can a violent man be impressed by violence? And he is clearly impressed by the horror he saw in the world war II. He said to his assistant he don't want to kill his wife's murderer.. because in the war he killed so much. It is not an attitude of a violent man. But they need to make him believe he is violent in order to "prove" he killed his wife.
One example of what really had been happening is when they were interrogating a woman who is told to have killed his husband with an axe.. when his assistant went for drinking water, the girl quickly wrote down a word for Teddy: run. Why did she wait his assistant to get away to do that? It is clear she knew what had been happening in the island.