Questions, questions and more questions

Rating: 9/10 (2 August 2010)

When I saw the trailers for this, I thought - Scorsese and DiCaprio - even their worst will probably be better than best by many others working today. It is far from their worst. It was mesmerizing and excellent and left me with many more questions than answers. It is not a "typical" Scorsese, but then if there really were a "typical" Scorsese, he wouldn't be the great director that he is.
It starts out in the film noir style turns into a twisting almost fractured plot that ends with far more questions than the in the beginning, Where is the missing/escaped patient, Rachel? In the end, it seems that Rachel is one of the lesser mysteries of Shutter Island. Where was the ferry and was it the only way on or off the island> Why couldn't Teddy and Chuck get any cooperation (or files) from the sinister Ben Kingsley and Max von Sydow. Teddy and Chuck were the powerful and feared G-Men of the time. Why didn't they seem to have any power and were obviously threatened? How could the missing/dead/lost Rachel be living in caves on such a small island? What are the scattered Nazi flash backs throughout the film?
As the plot goes on, Teddy's actions and the plot become more irrational and more fractured. Then it all comes to an ambiguous ending that left more questions than it answered. At least for me. I intend to see it at two or more times to knit all the raveled endings together into a comprehensible finale.
I do think there is a comprehensible finale. The questions make it more fascinating. DiCaprio is brilliant as Teddy and his performance is the best I have seen by him so far and that's saying a lot. It is an excellent movie that I would recommend to anyone who anyone who likes a good mystery mixed with a little Snake Pit and a lot of psychological terror. There are no monsters in this movie and there are no ghosts or ghoulies, but it is a horror movie nonetheless. Real horror is in the mind and not in the monsters or gore.
I think it is an excellent film. I rated it 9/10, but that may go higher after I see it a couple more times.