Shutter Island

Shutter Island
2010 - Paramount Pictures
Directed By Martin Scorsese



Since this film is still in theaters, this review will be spoiler free.

SYNOPSIS

A U.S. Marshall (Leonardo DiCaprio) heads to a federal treatment center for the criminally insane located on an island off the Massachusetts coast. A woman accused of murdering her children escaped and cannot be found. He teams up with another Marshall (Mark Ruffalo) and tries to find her, unravel the mysteries of the place, and whether the doctors may be trying to keep him captive on the island.



MY THOUGHTS

It's been a fruitful team-up of director Martin Scorsese and actor Leonardo DiCaprio, and Shutter Island may be their best film yet.

To try and explain the plot would totally destroy the film for someone who has not seen it, so I won't. Needless there's many twists and turns. The mystery aspect of the story is intriguing and for every revelation, more questions arise.

Martin Scorsese is a master filmmaker and Shutter Island shows his remarkable storytelling ability coupled with his intricate sense of detail and amazing camerawork.

Some of the dream sequences evoke the work of David Lynch, though here they are intricately tied into the plot and don't come across as self-indulgent. Like Lynch's work (Mulholland Drive comes to mind,) there are many twists and sharp turns in the storyline. Unlike Lynch, Scorsese successfully navigates us through the turns and we're not left crashed into a ditch holding our heads wondering what happened (like with a Lynch film.)

Leonardo DiCaprio delivers one of his best performances in years. He definitely gives an intricate, multi-layered performance and excels on every level.

It's a shame Paramount released this film in February due to financial problems. If it has been released in December as originally announced, it would clearly be one of this year's Oscar nominees, and DiCaprio would be nominated as well.

Shutter Island is certainly one of the best thinking-man's-type films in recent years and will surely spark many conversations upon leaving the theater.