Get taken away with a two-step viewing

Rating: 9/10 (21 August 2010)

'Shutter Island' is a suspenseful thriller that holds up to films such as 'The Sixth Sense'. Of course, that should be the very least you get when you put a legendary director like Martin Scorsese on the job. This is a film that will have you thinking and guessing even after you've left the theater. An amazing mind trip that takes the viewer into the surreal labyrinthine hell that is Shutter Island in the eyes of Edward "Teddy" Daniels, a U.S. Marshall investigating the strange disappearance of a patient at the Ashecliff Hospital for the criminally insane.
Leonardo DiCaprio is brilliant in the lead role of this film. It is easily his best performance since 'The Aviator' in 2004. His performance is one of the most down to earth, believable ones in recent memory. When he emotes he doesn't downplay or exaggerate for the sake of the film. He reacts in ways I could easily imagine a real person. DiCaprio may not have starred in a movie nearly as successful as 'Titanic', but as far as acting is concerned he is 10x the actor he was in 1997.
Scorsese is a genius. That goes without saying it. Martin Scorsese ranks up with the likes of Stanley Kubrick, Alfred Hitchcock, and Orson Welles as far as influence of cinematic techniques is concerned. Some were disappointed by Shutter Island, saying that it doesn't live up to Scorsese's reputation. I don't think there is anything wrong with the directing in this film.
The decision of composer and Scorsese-collaborator Robbie Robertson and Scorsese to use only classical music for the film is very Stanley Kubrick, but it also works very well in Shutter Island. Every piece of music manages to capture the scenes. It is a marvel how they make these pieces almost seem as if they were written for the film.
Make sure to give 'Shutter Island' two viewings, and don't let the first viewing define your view of the film. You will learn most from the film after two viewings spread out over a period of time. After seeing this movie for the second time, having thought over the first viewing for a period of six months, the film took on a new dimension of greatness. Somethings become more clear, while others remain a mystery.
Don't write this film off after one viewing. If you do, you're missing out on the power of Scorsese's fresh masterpiece.