Don't be freaked out by this movie, yet.

Rating: 9/10 (26 May 2010)

Spoiler alert first. This review is only intended for those who finished watching Shutter Island.
First off, if you were freaked out by this movie, congratulations! You just became a new guinea pig after a few millions people who just saw it. My suggestion is, think again. Don't just resort to questioning your own sanity like some serious viewers. That's because the masterful Martin Scorsese pulled out a masterful magic trick in narrating, and fooled you into a psycho's shoes. The settings, atmosphere,performances, character studies are all fascinating, yet mind-provoking. The final twist will have no less effects than great psychological thrillers like Fight Club, Psycho, etc. That's also why I gave it a bow and a 9/10 on IMDb.
Though the movie definitely gave us a lot of details suggesting the final revelation moments, we as audiences did saw those intentionally-made hallucinations as if they are real. Also, the whole atmosphere and the fact that the ways doctors treating mental patients are not perfect also helped building up paranoia. The main character, as we get to know him and his mental scars, are also put into these series of procedures which inspire paranoia as well. Like Hitchcock's masterpieces, this movie has a great assumption that insanity is a dwelling element in our society, which we can't weave away. This revelation may help us examining the philosophies behind this movie.
Like Batman Begins, the movie's theme is also very religious, "to save or to destroy?" Such is the clashing point of the psychological doctors in the movie. It's just like an argument between an angel and a demon, yet if you watch closely enough, you will also notice that the "demon" side in the movie,the doctors holding that brain-paralyzing surgery is the best resort are surely cold-hearted, without much of a goodwill, not to mention any kind of love toward the patient.However, the "angel" side of the doctors are also not so good as we have come to assume. Ben Kinsley's character is essentially playing God in controlling and affecting the test subject's mind, yet the conditioning and controlling procedures in this so-called Role-playing game are marred by either lack of goodwill from the other side, or the very procedure which can torment the subject and generate some more paranoia out of him. So this story is basically a sad-sad beginning continued with a sad-sad ending, which has already been decided by the writer's pessimistic logics.
I am definitely not criticizing the movie's authentication on a story level. In fact, the movie very honestly revealed one truth to us, that you only get to choose to be saved or to be destroyed in a limited time, and you won't be given another chance forever. That's because if you always ruin the chance of being redeemed, the whole life becomes a repeated torture, which is not so different from hell. Shutter Island definitely achieved in questioning the human's weak spot and make us scream inside or outside. Yet, the story lacked some very important factors, which I have been wondering since I noticed that none of the main characters revealed to have any religious belief and assumed atheists. Scorsese had been, according to my memory, mocking at or ignoring Christianity since his early movies. In this socially-concerned movie, he again showed this tendency. Simply put, simply believing in people's mind can choose to face the facts and turn to the good helpers, while factoring out God's saving grace, is a silly belief which beats itself. That's the very dilemma and failure Ben Kinsley's character met. Also, Playing God in this dreadfully set "Role-playing-game" also beats itself because you can't even be almighty enough to control all the chess pieces, like the movie had shown.
That being said, I very much like to see everyone who's frightened by the movie to relax and have a good dream. That's it.