Shutter Island
Tags: suspenseful, gothic, murder, neo noir, psychological, boring, thought-provoking, cult, violence, horror, plot twist, flashback, atmospheric, insanity, psychedelic, action, clever, philosophical, mystery, brainwashing, revenge

Plot synopsis:
U.S. Marshals Teddy Daniels (Leonardo DiCaprio) and Chuck Aule (Mark Ruffalo) are on a ferryboat in foggy Boston Harbour headed towards Shutter Island, an island containing a federal mental hospital for the criminally insane. They are going to the island because a woman patient named Rachel escaped the day before. Teddy is very ill, sweating and throwing up in the toilet, telling himself to get it together, it's just water. Then he looks out the window and says it's a LOT of water. He goes up on deck to talk to Chuck, and it's apparent that they are new partners working for the first time together. During their conversation it is revealed that Teddy's wife died in an apartment fire several years before. Chuck is sorry he brought it up. He refers to Teddy as boss all the way through the movie, and at one point mentions that Teddy is a legend, so we know that Teddy is well known through the Marshal Service and that he is Chuck's superior.They get to the island, and the ferry captain mentions that there is a big storm coming. Teddy and Chuck meet the deputy warden, McPherson, who takes them into the mental hospital grounds. There are high walls that make it look like a prison, and electrified wire on the perimeter, but the actual buildings and grounds look almost like a college campus. There is the A building, housing the male patients, B building for the women patients, and C building which is situated on the highest point of the island and we are told it was a civil war fortress. It houses the most dangerous patients and the marshals are told that under no circumstances are they to go there on their own without McPherson and Dr. Cawley (Ben Kingsley) accompanying them. There is a brief argument when deputy warden McPherson requires them to give up their firearms. Teddy says that they are federal agents, but McPherson tells them that federal penitentiary law overrides that and says that they won't get through the gates with their weapons. They reluctantly give them up, with Chuck rather clumsily removing his holster from his pants, which gets him a look from McPherson and Teddy.They meet Dr. Cawley, who explains a bit about the facility and psychiatry. Dr. Cawley says that there is a war going on in psychiatry, with one faction who believes in surgical techniques like lobotomies to treat patients, where another side says that the new psychotropic drugs are the way to treat people. He believes that sometimes just listening to a patient and quietly making their life comfortable is the way to go. Teddy still has a splitting headache from the ferry trip, and the doctor gives him some water and some pills that he says are aspirin. He explains that Rachel, a patient, has escaped the night before but says that it's impossible because she seems to have simply vanished through the walls. She is at Shutter Island because she drowned three of her children one by one, and then pretended that they had never died. In fact, she believes that she is still at her home at the hospital, and all of the staff and other inmates are merely neighbours or deliverymen that she encounters in her daily life. She refuses to accept that she has killed anyone, or even that her children are dead.They tour the rest of the island, where officers are looking for the escaped Rachel. There is a lighthouse on the other side of the island that is gated off and there are armed guards, which makes Teddy a little suspicious.Teddy makes it clear that his job is to interview staff and patients. He says he needs the personnel records of the staff, but the doctor kind of blows that off. They go to the patient living quarters and interview staff about the night that Rachel left. In her cell, there is a loose floorboard and a handwritten note from her, saying "The law of 4. Who is 67?". The staff are less than helpful at the meeting that Teddy and Chuck have to ask about her, but do note that she had attended group therapy right before she went to her room and disappeared. During the meeting, it is revealed that she has a staff physician who conducted the meeting, a Dr. Shaheen. When Teddy asks where he is, Dr. Cawley says he just left that morning on the ferry to go on a long planned vacation. Teddy is incredulous that a dangerous mental patient has just escaped, there's a lockdown, and her doctor is allowed to just go on vacation. Things definitely look suspicious at this point.There are a series of dream sequences interspersed, flashbacks about Teddy's time in WWII as a soldier, and Teddy often has internal conversations with himself in which his dead wife, Dolores (Michelle Williams), talks to him and gives him advice. In one flashback, Teddy's unit is the first to liberate the Dachau concentration camp. There are many dead Jews. Teddy is especially moved by a dead woman and her dead daughter in her arms in the middle of a pile of dead bodies. Teddy remembers watching the German Camp Commander attempt suicide by shooting himself, but he only wounds himself, shooting himself in the side of his face. The German tries to reach his gun to finish the job, but Teddy slowly slides the gun away with his foot just out of reach of the German, watching him suffer before he bleeds to death. In other dreams, his wife discovering that he has a lot of empty bottles of alcohol that he has hidden around the house. He explains that the things he saw while in Germany are the reason why he drinks so much.After the meeting with staff, Dr. Cawley has Teddy and Chuck over to his mansion on the island to have a cigar and something to drink. When they arrive, there is a Dr. Naehring (Max von Sydow) in the den, and he seems to be Dr. Cawley's superior. Teddy takes an instant dislike to him when he notices a faint German accent, and the two verbally spar for a little bit. Dr. Naehring is amused, commenting on Teddy's remarkable defence mechanisms. Dr. Naehring calls Teddy and Chuck men of violence, which offends Chuck. But the doctor says he doesn't mean that they are violent men, only that they are men who have seen violence and don't shy away from it if necessary. He correctly surmises that they were both in the army during WWII, and that they weren't raised to run away from violence. Teddy gets angry when they say that they've consulted the board of directors who have refused to release the staff's personnel records, angry enough that Teddy breaks a glass, threatens to end the investigation in the morning and turn his findings over to the FBI, and storms off in a huff.The next day, the storm has hit the island and it is clear the ferry will not arrive. Teddy was only bluffing the night before as he has no intention of leaving without investigating the island some more. Teddy and Chuck have several interviews with the patients who were in the group therapy session with Rachel. They are unhelpful and all seem to be following a script because they say very similar things in their interviews. In one interview, a woman asks Chuck for a glass of water and when he leaves, she grabs Teddy's notebook and writes something very quickly and gives it back to him.He and Chuck leave the hospital grounds and explore the island, ending up at the cemetery. The wind and rain are picking up and they find sanctuary in a cemetery vault. Chuck asks Teddy to level with him; he suspects that the last patient told him something while he was getting her water, and Teddy finally shows him the notebook, and it says RUN. Teddy finally explains that he was trying to get assigned to an investigation of the mental hospital for some time. He says that a man named Laeddis was a maintenance worker at the apartment they lived in and he was the arsonist who set the fire that killed his wife. He got off on a technicality, but later was caught when he killed some other people. He was sent to the mental hospital here. But when Teddy looked into it, there was no paperwork at all for Laeddis, and he suspects that there is some greater conspiracy going on. He mentions the Nazi experiments and wonders if his own government is involved in psychotropic drug research as well. He tells Chuck that he came across a prisoner by the name of George Noyce who was actually sent here some time before and he was the one who clued Teddy in that there was some crazy research going on here.Chuck suddenly gets paranoid that maybe in all of Teddy's poking around he alerted the wrong people to his interest in Shutter Island and that maybe they arranged the disappearance of Rachel as an excuse to draw him here as a Marshal to investigate where they could make both of them disappear. Teddy is not sure that's possible, but Chuck is pretty convincing and suddenly, the door busts in and there is a car spotlight on them from dep. Warden McPherson's car. Hes been looking for them and they get in and he takes them back to the hospital. They change out of their wet business suits, and the orderly gives them the staff white uniforms that almost make them look like patients, and he tells them that it will take a day or two to get their suits back. They don't like the whites but take them anyway. The orderly says their cigarettes were ruined (they both smoke a lot), but he gives them two new packs of cigs.They meet in Dr. Cawley's office again. They argue briefly about the investigation, and suddenly Teddy gets ill again, a migraine. He thinks he'll be okay, but then he starts to fall and Chuck catches him. The doctor gives him a couple of pills, but Teddy doesn't want to take them. Hes really sick, though, and the doctor almost insists that he take them, and he does. Chuck helps him down to the basement with all the rest of the staff to wait out the hurricane like storm. Just before he dozes off, he sees a sinister looking guy, who an orderly says is the warden (Ted Levine, the killer from Silence of the Lambs). The warden kind of sneers at Teddy right before Teddy falls asleep.Teddy has another dream sequence with his wife, who tells him that Rachel is on the island, and that he needs to help her. In a dream, Teddy is in Dr. Cawley's den, and Laeddis (Elias Koteas) in his chair by the fire. Laeddis has a really nasty scar running from his right eye down to the left side of his chin, and his left eye is milky white.The next day is kind of chaotic. The backup generators fail, and all of the patients' cell doors were therefore opened. Trees are fallen all over the hospital campus with staff and officers trying to clean up as well as gather up all of the wandering patients. Teddy and Chuck use this as an opportunity to go up to C building while no one is really paying attention to them. The place is really dark inside and they wander around. A patient runs from them and they give chase. Chuck falls behind and the patient grabs Teddy from behind and is choking him. Teddy gets away and beats the crap out of him until Chuck pulls him off. A guard chews out Teddy and has Chuck help him take the patient to the medical centre, telling Teddy to take a walk and cool off.Teddy wanders around and finds a row of cells where a prisoner is sitting by himself and saying the name Laeddis. When Teddy demands the prisoner look at him, he realizes it is George Noyce, the guy who was a former patient here who told him about what was going on at Shutter Island. Noyce's face is badly beaten. Teddy can't believe he is back here and Noyce is yelling at him that its all about Laeddis, isn't it? He tells Teddy that the only way he can save Noyce is to forget his wife and Laeddis and focus on what is going on here. Teddy looks guilty when Noyce tells him it is his fault that Noyce is back here because he kept inquiring about Laeddis. Teddy promises that he'll get Noyce out of there. Noyce tells him that Laeddis is no longer in C building, but that they have taken him to the lighthouse, where they are planning to do a lobotomy on him. He says that the lighthouse is where they do a lot of their experiments on people who are troublemakers. Noyce questions him about Noyce, implying that he is a plant by the government to follow Teddy. He asks him whether hes ever worked with Chuck before, and we know that they haven't because they let us know that in the beginning.Teddy finally catches up with Chuck and they head towards the office. Dr. Cawley says they found Rachel (Emily Mortimer). They go to her cell and there is a weird scene where Teddy tries to talk to her and she ultimately thinks he is her dead husband and starts yelling at him.At some point, Teddy's dream sequences now include Rachel as the woman with her daughter in the pile of bodies at Dachau. And this time they open their eyes and look at him. The girl asks him why he didn't save her. He says he tried but they (the soldiers) just didnt get there in time. In another scene, Rachel is all bloody but she is at Teddy and his wife's vacation cottage. They go outside and Teddy sees the little girl and picks her up and carries her to the water. The little girl asks him again why he didn't save her and he looks sad.Teddy and Chuck leave and Chuck says he found Laeddis's file but there was only his commitment paper in the file which he tries to show Teddy but he wont look at it now because he is intent on reaching the lighthouse. Teddy is acting suspicious of Chuck when he tries to talk him out of going to the lighthouse. They arrive at the cliffs over the ocean and realize they are too far south of the lighthouse. Teddy says he is going to go around and try to get there a different way. Again Chuck tries to talk him out of it because it's dangerous to scale the cliffs when it will be dark soon. They argue some more and Teddy tells him he is going by himself. Teddy gets near the lighthouse but finds that it is late enough in the day that the tide has cut off the lighthouse from the island. He gives up and goes back to where Chuck is to tell him they'll try later. But all he sees is a burning cigarette on the edge of the cliff (it's about a hundred feet down to the rocks below). He looks over and sees Chuck at the bottom of the cliff with waves crashing over him.Shocked, Teddy climbs down the cliff but doesn't see Chuck at the bottom. He sees a cave in the side of the cliff with a fire burning inside. When he reaches the cave, he sees a woman armed with a knife. They begin talking and she says she is Rachel (Patricia Clarkson), but that she was a doctor at the hospital who found out too much and they committed her and concocted a story that she killed her kids. The other Rachel must be an imposter they used to fool Teddy and Chuck. She says there is a secret government program to test a number of new drugs on the patients to make them sort of super spies or soldiers who don't feel pain and don't have memories that can be tortured out of them if they are captured. She then warns Teddy that they will not let him leave. They will concoct a story that he went crazy. She asks him if he had a serious trauma (his wife dying), and says that they will use that to say that he cracked. She asks him if he has taken any medication (he has; the aspirin for his headaches). She asks if he's eaten at the hospital, or smoked any of their cigarettes (the orderly gave him a new pack when his clothes were all wet). She says that it takes 36-48 hours for psychotropic drugs to take effect and make him pliable for them to control. The first sign will be tremors in his hands, which he already has. She also questions whether Chuck is even a Marshal, that he is probably a government agent sent to go with him to the island.When Teddy gets back to the road, he sees a jeep pull up with the warden. The warden takes him back to the facility and they have a really weird conversation about being men of violence. The warden tells him that men like them know how to use violence and use it well. He asks Teddy if he were to reach over and try to bite his eye out, would Teddy be able to stop him. Teddy says "why don't you try and well find out?". The warden smiles and says that's the Teddy he was expecting.Teddy leaves to confront Dr. Cawley. Dr. Cawley wonders where Teddy has been. Teddy says he'll be leaving and he asks if the doctor has seen Chuck, his partner. Dr. Cawley says he came to the island alone, there was no partner. Teddy realizes that they are already starting to put their plan in action by insisting there was no Chuck. He leaves and walks around the grounds, trying to decide what to do next. He sees his wife, who tells him to leave the island and don't go to the lighthouse. She says the lighthouse will destroy him.He decides to blow up Dr. Cawley's car to create a diversion so he can sneak down to the lighthouse. He uses his tie from his suit, soaks it with gas from the gas tank, and lights it. As he moves away from the car, he sees his wife and the little girl in front of the car. It explodes around them but they aren't burned at all. He runs out of there to make it to the lighthouse. He swims over to it, and sneaks up behind a guard and overpowers him and takes his rifle. The guard asks him if he is going to kill him and he says no, but hits him with the rifle butt and knocks him out. He runs up the stairs of the lighthouse to the top, checking each room but finding no operating rooms for surgical experiments.He gets to the top and finds Dr. Cawley, sitting behind a desk. Teddy holds the rifle on him while he is talking. The doctor tells him there are no bullets in the rifle, and asks him if he killed the guard below. Teddy says no, but the doctor calls down anyway to tell the people below to attend to the guard before they come up. Teddy sees his gun from the beginning of the movie on the doctors desk.Dr. Cawley tells Teddy that he is a patient at the hospital, and has been for two years. Teddy doesn't believe him, and says that he is a U.S. Marshal. The doctor says he was one, but after his breakdown two years ago he was sent here. He broke down when his kids were killed. Teddy says he doesn't have any kids. Dr. Cawley says they have been trying to use the new drug therapy to help him and have been trying to do everything they could to treat him. Dr. Cawley tells him that he has been one of the most dangerous patients they have had and that there are some who want to lobotomize him to make him manageable. The whole last couple of days were an attempt to do a massive role-play to get him to finally realize the truth. He calls in Dr. Sheehan, the doctor from the beginning that went on vacation right after his patient Rachel disappeared. The door opens and it is .Chuck! He is a psychiatrist who agreed to play along with Teddy's fantasy and to keep tabs on him. Dr. Cawley tells Teddy that his real name is Laeddis, and he shows him on a chalkboard that his full name and Laeddis's are an anagram; that is, all the letters in his name can be rearranged to spell Laeddis's full name. The same thing with his wife's name and Rachel's. Teddy constructed the new name Teddy Daniels to create distance from his real name.The doctor points out that Noyce was a fellow patient who Teddy attacked a few days before, and that was why he was all beaten up looking. Teddy denies this, but the doctor shows him the transcript of what Noyce said to him in the cell earlier, where he said this was all Teddy's fault. He tells Teddy that the reason why he beat up Noyce was that Noyce called him by his real name.Teddy grabs his gun off the table and shoots Dr. Cawley, whose blood splashes against the wall. The next second, there is no blood. Dr. Cawley tells him that his gun was a toy gun they gave him when they began the role-play.He tells Teddy that he has completely erased everything he did wrong in an attempt to make himself be the hero. We finally see a flashback where Teddy/Laeddis comes home to his cottage from a week or two of chasing bad guys in Oklahoma. His wife (Michelle Williams) is acting strangely. He asks where the kids are and she says they are in school. He says it's Saturday, and she smiles and says, they're in HER school and looks towards the lake. Horrified, Teddy runs down to the lake and sees his three children face down in the lake. He scoops them all up, crying uncontrollably and places them on the ground. Then his wife hugs him and says they should put the kids at the dining room table and have dinner. Teddy is crying and says if she ever loved him, please stop talking. She is sad now and says she loves him and then there is a shot. Teddy looks down and realizes that he just shot his wife. She is laying there with a lot of blood on her and then she dies.Teddy now realizes that he has a choice between accepting his truth or continuing to deny it. The doctor makes it clear that if he can't accept the truth, then Dr. Cawley won't be able to stop the other doctors from ordering that he be lobotomized. He makes Teddy admit that he blamed himself for not realizing earlier that his wife was having trouble. That he feels responsible for killing his kids because he didn't get her help when she needed it. He created a fantasy world where he never killed his wife, and he never had a breakdown.The next day, he and Chuck (Dr. Shaheen), are sitting on some steps by the hospital grounds. He asks Chuck what their next move is (as if he still believes he is investigating the hospital as a U.S. Marshal), and Chuck says, what do you think, boss? Chuck nods to the other doctors across the grounds who then direct some orderlies to move towards Teddy. Teddy asks Chuck whether it's better to live as a monster or die a good man. He stands up and willingly goes with the orderlies, as he would rather choose to continue his fantasy than accept the horrors of his reality.Alternatively, he has accepted his reality, but still cannot live with the horrors of it. So now at the end of the film he is actually acting out the fantasy, rather than living it. Effectively, he is cured. However, he still can't live with his memories so he knowingly forces the doctors to take the decision for physical intervention, ie the lobotomy, knowing he will no longer have to live with his memories as a compliant 'zombie'..Thus ending his life as a good man.(As contrary in the Book,where the author ended the book with him still as Teddy)

Review: There is one line of dialogue, right at the end of Shutter Island before the credits roll, that elevates the emotion of the film and makes it much more powerful.
That's not to knock a well-deserved frenetic scene of violence every once in awhile--it works to the advantage of some films like Evil Dead II and Planet Terror--but had Teddy and Chuck gone running and gunning through the facility's faculty, the mood this movie keeps in check so well would have been lost.However, that mood isn't sacrificed and "spooky" is punched up to full force.
I found the editing in the opening scene, with Chuck and Teddy approaching Shutter Island, to be very odd and frantic, though I think the audience will know why Scorsese displayed the scene the way he did after completing the film.With a body of work so impressive, Shutter Island is among captivating company.
He uses lush, bright color during daytime and dream sequences to flush out a distinct feeling of terror.Shutter Island isn't just a pretty face, its also got a great story to boot and this is why I've been anticipating the film for so long.
He pays attention to every detail in this film, making "Shutter Island" one of the best suspense thrillers of all time.Visually intriguing, simplistic and absolutely phenomenal.
But I was surprised at how faithful the film was to the original material.The directing was also masterfully done and pretty cool I saw some cool camera tricks I hadn't seen since Martin Scorsese directed Bringing Out The Dead, Martin Scorsese did one great job and everyone was top notch especially Ben Kingsley and DiCaprio and I never though I would jump out of fright especially in a Scorsese film but I did.
All in all a solid thriller with a good story and some great performances and for me it's the best film I've seen in 2010 so far..
From the look of the trailer, Martin Scorsese's "Shutter Island" looks more like a horror film This is a dangerous place where isolation rules under fascist control.
The two that stuck out to me most were Ben Kingsley (Dr. Cawley) and Michelle Williams (Dolores, Teddy's wife), each of whom brought so much dramatics and new questions to the movie, developing plot twists and controversy.
The two that stuck out to me most were Ben Kingsley (Dr. Cawley) and Michelle Williams (Dolores, Teddy's wife), each of whom brought so much dramatics and new questions to the movie, developing plot twists and controversy.
I don't think this film would be the same without them.Even to begin explaining details of the plot and how everything comes to fruition causes me to feel migraines alike the ones Teddy gets in the movie, therefore I won't ruin anything for you now.
The movie( which i saw at the Berlin film festival!) blew away the minds of many people, the plot being so strong and thrilling which kept the audiences guessing!
Ben Kingsley, who plays the primary doctor on the island, deserves a Supporting Actor Oscar nomination, and we will see how far the rest of the cast and movie will go into next year's awards.The best comparisons for me were the Shining, for the psychological horror aspects of both movies.
Shutter Island is an absolute breathtaking movie with a tremendous storyline that will keep you interested all the way through and a brilliant cast that all follow through with their performances in an overall terrific film once again from the great Martin Scorsese.The movie sounded pretty plain to me,I thought it would be an average thriller that I would enjoy but it would be pretty forgettable,but it totally wasn't,the movie had me curious and also confused,and the twist was one of the greatest,most surprising and most shocking twists i've ever seen in a movie,I literally never suspected it,not even once,and when it did happen I still didn't believe it.Shutter Island is a must see for all fans of Leonardo DiCaprio,Martin Scorsese,thriller and mystery.Teddy Daniels (Leonardo DiCaprio),a US Marshall,sets out with his partner to a mental institution in a quiet island to investigate where a missing patient could have gone.But there's something suspicious about the island that they didn't bargain for..
Scorsese directs with excess in a good way – striking images are used and I liked the way that there are no obvious visual triggers between reality and hallucinations/memories, this works well and I enjoyed the blurring for the viewer.Shutter Island is not a perfect film by any means; for what it is it is excessively long and takes too much time at the risk of the viewer getting impatient with its pace.
Nothing is what it seems at the facility though, and the further Teddy & Chuck investigate, the murkier the truths of Ashecliff become.Directed by Martin Scorsese, Shutter Island is adapted from the best selling novel of the same name written by Dennis Lehane (Mystic River/Gone Baby Gone).
Predictable - which is the worst thing one can say about a movie.The twist at the end is not enough to rescue this move, and Martin Scorsese has done remarkable work (as usual) in telling a story - but it wasn't that good in book form either.
The cinematography, the spooky atmosphere, the film noir's overtones, the whole psychological torment, the "buried trauma" to quote him, as so many voices speaking in favor of "Shutter Island", another great achievement from the greatest director of his generation.Marty might be the greatest as the most consistent director of the New Hollywood generation but I hate how 'great Marty film' started working like a pleonasm, as to underline a tacit rule that any movie made by a great film-maker automatically deserves the benefit of the doubt, in other words: if you hate it, you didn't get it.
I'm sorry but Marty didn't gain in maturity, not even in craftsmanship, he purely and simply  lost his touch.I have the biggest respect for Scorsese, and also for Ebert, and the reason I mentioned the latter is because he's certainly Scorsese's number one fan, but he's also one of these privileged persons who've seen so many movies in his life that he would be the least likely to get so easily impressed by a film, that blatantly exploits every single cinematic cliché, considering the story's material.
In that case, it's like Scorsese was the 'sprinkled sprinkler', and Ebert's implicit denial of the script obviousness says a lot about his recurrent loss of subjectivity whenever it concerns Scorsese.I don't want to number all the clichés: the two detectives investigating, the entrance in the island with a haunting atmosphere emphasized by an ominous music, begging you to be scared, or impressed, a weird feeling of unrealism in some backgrounds that made me question what the artistic approach was, let's just call it 'homage' to old-school cinema, this one never gets old.
I was pleased by Ben Kingley's performance as the charming head doctor, but it's getting old since Nurse Ratched and I didn't mention Fritz Lang, because there are less risks that he might be known by the targeted audience.And I'm not even implying that the movie is not worth watching, but it plays like an overlong build-up for a weak climax, a build-up, during which nothing very pleasing happens.
And we discover his wife played by a beautiful Michelle Thomas, and some horrific flashbacks featuring the Nazi's atrocities, always a good taste to combine the supernatural horror with the real one, that's what the movie needed in case we thought we would cheer up at the end.
But he just doesn't do justice to his glorious filmography, Scorsese is a man of gripping realism of psychological torture and it doesn't need a supernatural flavor to taste good, it's scarier when real and more than that, Scorsese is a damn entertainer, with a unique talent of storyteller, and not only the story isn't told well, but it's not even a good story, as far as originality is concerned.And when comes the final scene, with the final line, supposed to summarize the whole message of the film and justify the whole build-up, my only reaction was : "so, we got from that  to that?!" and this is my exact feeling when I compare between Marty's earlier and later works..
A story that has been done a million times over and much, much better.It is impossible to cite specific instances of guffaw-inducing movie-making in Shutter Island--because it was so darn awful THROUGHOUT!
If they had cut out all that flashback nonsense, which of course I am sure Scorcese thought was so wonderfully 'artistic', they could have got the film down to about 90 minutes and could have had, well, certainly not a GOOD movie but one that was definitely not as awful as what was produced.
He has come up with an ingenious plot twist (although it is not new and has been used in various old movies), which I shall refrain from revealing because it concerns the end of the film, which one is prohibited from discussing on IMDb. But however clever Scorsese is, there is no disguising the fact that this film is dark, sinister, infinitely depressing, and a bad influence.
The isolation, or in the case of Martin Scorsese's Shutter Island the possibility of it, could be enough to drive you insane.Leonardo DiCaprio stars as U.S. Marshal Teddy Daniels.
For me, someone new to the material, Shutter Island is captivating.When it comes to the plot there is a ton that I'd like to discuss, but can't simply because this is a puzzle film and I don't want to ruin it's intricately woven pattern of suspense.
If he wants to talk about violence, about madness, surely there was a far clearer way to get this across than this red herring mess he shoved down our craw.If you were shocked and amazed by the 'plot twists' in this film, I have to assume you have never watched a mystery or thriller or horror movie in your entire life, nor seen much TV lately.
Just seen this movie about 2 hours ago and was so disappointed by the whole thing I just had to sit down and write my 1st review on this site!The trailer promised much but the movie delivered little, the convoluted plot hid behind many many dream sequences, never a good plot device!I expected more from this director but maybe its not his fault, I think that the main problem is the ridiculous story is just plain silly, there were 4 in our party and we all guessed the end, don't worry no spoilers!
Suffice to say I did not like this film, I will not continue to tell you the plot as many others have already done so, I would just tell you not to waste your hard earned cash, trust me, if you see it, you will not want to see it again and that is not a sign of a entertaining movie experience!!.
US Marshal Teddy Daniels (Leonardo DiCaprio) and his partner Chuck Aule (Mark Ruffalo) are dispatched to Shutter Island, a facility that combines mental health treatment and criminal detention.
The performances are outstanding, and the plot actually makes sense, which is more than most psychological thrillers can say these days.The reason I can't stand it is because there is absolutely not a single thing done in the film that I haven't seen a thousand times.
On the other hand, walk into a film directed by Martin Scorsese, starring Leonardo DiCaprio, based on a novel written by Dennis Lehane (who wrote "Gone Baby Gone" and "Mystic River") and a supporting cast that includes Mark Ruffalo, Max Von Sydow, Sir Ben Kingsley and Emily Mortimer, you are almost certain to be disappointed.
Shutter Island, the new film from Martin Scorsese, has a hell of a lot to live up to.
Flamboyantly silly and long-winded psychothriller/psychodrama that tries hard to say relevant things about mental conditions, memory and trauma, but in fact is nothing more than pulp without the necessary entertainment factor.Scorsese's lamentable attempt to inject his (admittedly gorgeous) visuals with an unnerving quality falls flat, while DiCaprio has always been the least successful in striking puzzled and worried poses.In the end, all the narrative twists and impressive set-pieces prove to be ineffective due to the lack of sympathy towards the wooden characters.And about that ambiguous story-line: It doesn't matter which version is true, both are ridiculous.4 out of 10 mental breakdowns.
With the 1950s setting, the U.S. Marshals/detectives, missing person case and the bleak tone the film was establishing, there was even a noir feel to it.As the story progresses, the protagonist (DiCaprio) starts having these off-kilter flashbacks, and among one of them, a story that tells of his time in the Second World War. This is where I think the film hits its highest note.
If your history is up to par then you'll know how fitting the WWII plot element is to the overall story of the film, which is also ultimately where I think the movie left me underwhelmed.
You want to watch it and to see what happens at the end of this story.This horror film with tons of atmosphere to music ,directions and set to a wonderfully story.I believe that the main idea of the plot is to find your demons inside your own island in your head.
1954; US Marshal Teddy Daniels (Leonardo DiCaprio) is investigating the disappearance of a patient who has escaped from a psychiatric hospital on Shutter Island.
I found that Shutter Island not only kept me in suspense, but also kept me thinking and the two elements combined are cinematic heaven as far as I'm concerned.Acting wise, Scorsese has got lots of big players on board such as DiCaprio, Kingsley and Von Sydow to name a few and all the players on board put in stellar performances.
However, just when I was prepared to be majorly disappointed, Shutter Island throws in more twists and turns after the obvious twist was revealed and these added twists did surprise me somewhat.This is an excellent film that will most likely appeal to fans of psychological thrillers or mystery films.
I recommend it, but for those real film buffs out there who know the layout of how movies work and are good at guessing the twist endings...don't get your hopes up.
Long story short, while I was able to see the positives while watching Shutter Island (the acting and the film's direction will not disappoint), I found the film to be predictable and just simply, nothing special at all..
(Synopsis) In 1954, U.S. Marshall Teddy Daniels (Leonardo DiCaprio) and his new partner Chuck Aule (Mark Ruffalo) are assigned to investigate the escape of a patient at the federal maximum security hospital/prison for the criminally insane located on Shutter Island.
Teddy finds the answer he was looking for.(My Comment) Shutter Island has an eerie atmosphere with flashbacks to the concentration camp at Dachau and haunting dreams throughout the entire movie.
The mentally unstable characters who provided Hitchcock hints of utter depravity in those classics in Shutter Island mainly serve facile plot twists.Teddy Daniels (Leonardo DiCaprio) is a federal marshal who, with his partner, Chuck Aule (Mark Ruffalo) goes to Shutter Island Ashecliffe Hospital for the criminally insane in 1954 to investigate the escape of a notorious murderess of her own three children.
I only watched the rest of the film in the hope that I was wrong and that it was a double bluff and I was going to cheer in amazement but sadly I was disappointed, the movie played out as expected, waste of 2 hours.I can't say the film was truly awful but it didn't make the grade as a psych thriller, I found the music as they entered the island to be very jarring as well, but thats just a personal preference.
In a movie in which nearly everything is actually something else, the audience is redirected too many times for this to be an effective thriller, and some gaping holes in the plot should relegate this to the dustbin in no time.We first see Marshal Daniels (Dicaprio) on the way to the island via ferry, with his partner Chuck (Mark Ruffalo).
But for the most part, his character is on his own, and Dicaprio flounders.Shutter Island is, at best, minor Scorcese, a movie that's high on mood and atmosphere but a little light on a plausible plot.
In 1954, the Federal Marshal Teddy Daniels (Leonardo DiCaprio) and his new partner Chuck Aule (Mark Ruffalo) from Seattle travel by ferry to the Shutter Island to investigate the disappearance of the patient Rachel Solando (Emily Mortimer), who drowned her three kids, from the mental institution for dangerous criminals Ashcliffe Hospital.
This time around we follow U.S. Marshall Teddy Daniels (played by Leonardo DiCaprio) and his partner Chuck Aule (Mark Ruffalo) as they investigate the disappearance of a mental patient from a stormy island penitentiary off the coast from Boston in 1954.
This review won't give away the ending which comes as somewhat of a surprise, although many will admit to guessing the overall situation pretty early on.If you like your mysteries drenched in atmospheric surroundings, look no further than SHUTTER ISLAND.
His journey is compelling right from the start, thanks to the marvelous performances of DiCaprio and MARK RUFFALO who begin their investigation into happenings at the island housing the mentally insane--some of them very dangerous cases.Director Martin Scorsese has the benefit of an excellent cinematographer, ROBERT RICHARDSON, whose camera work makes every frame of the film captivating.
Shutter Island is a movie with Martin Scorsese signature all over it.
'Shutter Island' is a Martin Scorsese film about a federal officer, played by Leonardo DiCaprio, who visits a high-security hospital for the criminally insane, and this facility is located on a remote island.
DiCaprio's objectives in the film seem ambiguous at times, and, combined with the barrage of flashbacks and hallucinations, 'Shutter Island' often feels like a video game played inattentively.