Shutter Island

Rating: 10/10 (24 February 2010)

Shutter Island is based upon the novel of the same name by Dennis Lehane. The film takes place in the mid 1950's where a United States Marshal named Teddy Daniels and his partner Chuck Aule are sent to an island where there is a maximum security prison for patients with mental health disorders and many of them have become violent and are there because they have killed others. Teddy's assignment is to locate a patient who went missing. The task seems almost possible, due to the fact that the island is in the middle of nowhere and because of all the security around and because the island is surrounded by tons of rocks and water and you would not be able to get off the island alive. While at the institution Teddy soon discovers that not everything is as it seems and he could be the next one in danger while visiting and investigating this case. Shutter Island is proof that there are still great horror films being made today that are not remakes of other films and ones that have original ideas and are made to perfection. The script grabbed me almost instantly and it is not particularly an action packed film, rather more of a character study and a psychological horror film that keeps giving you clues and building up the suspense until the final moments of the film. This is one classy horror film with tons of atmosphere to the music, direction and sets to a wonderfully captivating and twist turning and fascinating story. Leonardo DiCaprio who plays Teddy gives one of his all time best performances here and shows us a man who has his own demons that he is facing and why he comes off the way he does and why solving the mystery of the island and institution is so important to him. The supporting actors all do a great job as well and add to our curiosity of the film and exactly how it will play out. This film reminded me a lot of the classic horror films where it doesn't really rely on a lot of brutal violence, or things jumping out at you, or loud noises to get you scared. This film does it by building an atmosphere what with a creepy and brooding musical score, well developed and mysterious characters and by the script which keeps adding more and more for us to digest and piece together until we really want to see what happens at the end. The thrills come from watching these characters (Teddy in particular) in torment and wrestling with his personal problems and things that could easily make, or break this case for him and his strong determination to see it to the end and unravel what he thinks the mystery of the island is. Teddy's character alone is fascinating to watch all by itself because of DiCaprio's great performance and by how many layers there are to this character. Through the film we see things from Teddy's past that may seem insignificant at first, but in the end you will see that everything is in here for a reason and it all sort of makes sense at the end. It is one of those films that you will have to interpret in your own way and I appreciated that about the film as well. And as I was saying watching Teddy and his past traumas and the things that have brought him to be the man he is now, one with little patience and quite aggressive and how he slowly starts to get worse as the film goes on is absolutely fascinating to watch, again from DiCaprio's great performance and the wonderful material he was given to work with. I sat in utter awe of this film and what I was watching before me because I got so into the plot, the characters and wondering what would happen, that I could not take my view anywhere else other than on the screen. The audience I viewed the film with seemed to have the same fascination as I did because there have not been too many times when I have sat in a completely full theatre and to have complete silence from the audience the whole way through. Whether they all liked the film as much as I did, I do not know. However it did keep their interest and must have fascinated them in one way, or other and had some type of effect on them. Many will unfortunately, probably come into this film hoping for a violent and terrifying film like a lot of the films that come out today in the horror genre. This is one of the better ones that relies on an original and fascinating script, lots of atmosphere to build the mood and suspense of the film and great actors delivering great performances from top notch material. All the elements of a great horror film are here and they all play out beautifully. This is the first film I have seen of 2010 and I already know that it will be among my favourites of this year by the time it is over. A great film worth seeing for fans of horror, thrillers or just good psychological character studies. Heavily recommended.