I wasn’t originally jumping for joy to see this film but then I thought hey why not – it’s directed by Scorsese and got Le-oh in it.

Martin Scorsese directs Leonardo DiCaprio, Mark Ruffalo, Ben Kingsley, Michelle Williams and Emily Mortimer in an adaptation from Dennis Lehane’s Shutter Island novel.

The Plot

DiCaprio takes on the role of U.S Marshall Teddy Daniels along with his partner Chuck. The two of them are sent to Shutter Islands Ashecliffe Hospital to investigate the disappearance of one of the patients played by Emily Mortimer.
After a somewhat rocky start the two of them then begin to unearth what seems like a twisted plot to experiment on the patients of the institute.
Teddy actually pushes to be placed on the Shutter Island case for his own reasons and it soon becomes apparent that these secrets and plots go a lot deeper than initially thought with Teddy finding himself drawn deeper into the Shutter Island world.

The Thoughts

Shutter Island is most definitely watchable with DiCaprio and Kingsley delivering charming performances, but I feel Scorsese tries far too hard to keep us in suspense throughout the whole 138 minutes which tended to drag past the hour and a half mark.

Shutter Island aims to get inside the head with somewhat disturbing scenes that had a profoundly frightening effect on me afterwards upon which I found myself asking how humans could be so cruel? So don’t see this if you don’t like seeing nasty images.
This isn’t your average run-of-the-mill predictable thriller. Sure there are some expected scenes and the smartest of us will probably be able to figure out what’s going on before they spell it out for us all, but overall it’s a clever story.

All the secrets and twists become clear by the end of the film, with the ending open to different interpretations which may lead to some confusion, still a worthwhile trip if you don’t mind leaving feeling almost unsatisfied if you need a definite ending to your films. This is a film you can only see once to get the full impact, think along the lines of A Beautiful Mind. but it’s a film that made an impression on me but not entirely memorable or a film I would want to see again anytime soon.

The Film Buzz Rating: 6/10

UK Release Date: 12th March 2010

Director: Martin Scorsese

Writer’s: Dennis Lehane (novel), Laeta Kalogridis (screenplay)

Links: IMDB, Official Site