Martin Scorsese achieved brilliance yet again with Shutter Island. Scorsese, director of The Departed and Goodfellas, went a step further this time, taking a complicated plot and successfully bringing it to the screen. The one phrase that comes to mind with this film is, “Except the Unexpected.” Just when you think you have it figured out, think again. Even the last line of the film offers an unexpected twist.

Shutter Island is a mystery thriller based off of the novel by Dennis Lehane with the same name. The film takes place in 1954 on an island just off the coast of Boston Harbor. Leonardo Dicaprio plays U.S. Marshall Teddy Daniels who was sent on the island to investigate the escape of a murderess patient from Ashecliffe Hospital for the criminally insane, along with his partner Chuck Aule, played by Mark Ruffalo. While working on the investigation he scopes even further into the Hospital’s doings with personal suspicions that there is more going on than meets the eye. He believes the hospital doctors including Dr. Cawley played by Ben Kingsley, are performing unethical and even illegal treatments on the patients.

Going further and further into the investigation, both Teddy and Chuck find that more and more questions arise as both patients and staff make it obvious that they do not want to talk. There is obviously something to hide. 
 

The music and cinematography work in the film further enhances the theme of insanity in the film. The close-ups of Dicaprio during his state of confusion throughout the film were pieces of artwork. Scorsese captured his watery blue eyes and tears strolling down his scruffy cheeks. The cinematography of the island makes the audience feel as if they are there with Teddy and Chuck on the cliff's edge.

There are many dream sequences that take you into Teddy’s past, drawing on both his experience as a soldier in the Second World War and the death of his wife, played by Michelle Williams, in a fire.

The flashbacks provide foreshadowing to what is to be revealed in the film. Although, at times, the pace of the film was slow, I was always captivated by what would happen next, wanting the next clue.

This film may just be Dicaprio’s best performance. This film is unlike any other Dicaprio has done and has proved even further the versatility of his talents. His sincerity allows the audience to connect deeply with Teddy. The dream sequences showed that there was more to this character than meets the eye. His dreams turned to hallucinations, images of his wife Dolores and victims of the Holocaust. Teddy's state of sanity began to be questioned as the film progressed.
 

This is one of those films that you should view a second time, catch those clues that lead up to the truth at the end; although, even the “truth” can be questions. As I left the theatre with my friends we all discussed the ending, each with a different interpretation of the meaning of the last few scenes. However, I believe that is the film’s charm – mind blowing. Five stars out of five.

Shannon Farrell