Shutter Island

Shutter Island is a neo-noir psychological thriller by Martin Scorsese, starring Leonardo DiCaprio as U.S. Marshall Teddy on a trip to the titular place shun from the world. A patient's missing and he's there with a newly assigned partner Chuck (Mark Ruffalo) to investigate the case. And from the first minute you embark this ride, the thrill and mystery is at all time high!

One Ms. Rachel Solando has vanished into thin air. Her history involves drowning her own kids before placing them on her kitchen table like puppets. Her primary physician has gone home just at the nick of time so he can't be queried. The island houses a hospital - an incredibly scary institution that treats patients no other medical centers in the world can or would. The treatment's either psychosurgery or psychopharmacology. But there is something else happening on the island. Based on the information Teddy has, the man who murdered his wife and kids is here, specifically in Ward C where the most dangerous patients are bottled. More importantly, Teddy's here to blow the lid off this place rumored to have been experimenting on its patients.

Teddy's ward C stroll as he nears Andrew Laeddis with the constant matchstick light extinguishing, church conversation, guards' lined-up execution, Rachel's (Emily Mortimer) unexplained appearance and the first meetup with her, Chuck's death with the intake form floating midair, patients interrogation with Mr. Breene (Christopher Denham) and Mrs. Kearns (Robin Bartlett), partner distrust plus the stumble-on with the real Rachel Solando (Patricia Clarkson) in the cave as she advises Teddy to beware of his food intake and how the hospital folks will convince him that he's crazy are all part of the intense investigation process!

The most gut-wrenchingly impressive and rewarding aspect about Shutter Island is that you could view the film in two ways, and it works perfectly as both! It's either Teddy is insane or he's tricked into believing he is! This is why sometimes the fact that the hospital constructed a whole sketch for this one patient may seem like a stretch idea to buy at first. When we are opened to the truth that he murdered his psychotic wife, we learn his past and realize that Rachel's case actually happened in his life. When this traumatic event is visually unveiled at the finale, it's goddamn bone-chilling! Teddy is revealed to be an extremely psychotic patient with severe delusion and rich imagination! He needs to accept this truth or else they'll lobotomize him. All these drama is the last resort to save him. Eventually in the end he does regress, which we learn he pretended to so that he could be put out of misery. While this may seem like the definite lens to view Teddy's story, there's an entire world of possibility where the islanders have convinced him that he's insane to stop his investigation on the hospital! Both those roads work and both are mercilessly tragic! The makers have managed to plant you right in the protagonist's headspace incredibly well, making you feel exactly how and what he does! However, it must be mentioned that the psychotic hallucinations he experiences throughout can appear pretentious since at the time of watching it lacks any meaning.

Shutter Island's production design plays a major role for the aesthetic of the film to be this stellar! Be it the prosthetic for the frozen corpses or the wounded ones waiting to die, makeup for the patients, burnt room with floating ashes, hidden cave led by mice, Ward C prison or the lighthouse, the architecture of the entire island is fantastic! Max Ritcher's theme score for Dolores breaks your heart every single time it sings! Of course it goes without saying the performances are outstanding, especially Leonardo DiCaprio. The guy is born to be an actor, enough said. And Martin Scorsese's filmmaking is perfection! There is simply no other words to describe his prowess as a director who arrests you with flow of images! He ensured the film to feel akin to reading a solid detective novel on your bed in the middle of a rainy, suspicious night. The eerie air of suspense you feel while watching Shutter Island is exactly that! Coupled with the juicy cinematic camerawork capturing some of the most downright haunting images, magnificent score and snappy editing, this is an experience that rarely comes by and pounds you off your feet!