Movie Review: Shutter Island, a psychological thriller!

Shutter Island (2010) is a psychological thriller directed by Martin Scorsese and takes you to how the mind can work in mysterious ways. The film is set in the 1950s and tells the story of a US Marshal named Teddy Daniels (Leonardo DiCaprio) and his partner Chuck Aule (Mark Ruffalo), as they both were assigned to investigate the strange disappearance of a patient from a mental institution located on a small island in the middle of the ocean, Shutter Island. As they uncover more and more, Teddy starts fighting with his inner demons and starts to lose his sanity.

"Sanity's not a choice, Marshall. You can't just choose to get over it."

This post will contain a lot of spoilers from here on, I recommend watching the movie or skipping the following parts of the post if you don't want to ruin your watching experience.

Plot

Teddy Daniels (Leonardo DiCaprio) meets his new partner Chuck Aule (Mark Ruffalo) on a ferry as they approach the secluded island, Shutter Island and into the psychiatric facility where they investigate the disappearance of Rachel Solando, convicted of murdering her children. As they wanted to investigate further they were denied access to critical documentation and they became increasingly suspicious of the staff. While on the case, Teddy's past comes to haunt her and he starts hallucinating and seeing the voices of his murdered wife.

As the mystery depends, Teddy sees a web of deception and conspiracy surrounding the facility. He starts thinking that the doctors are conducting sinister experiments on the brains of their patients. As Teddy explores the Island more, he becomes convinced that they won't let him leave the island.

For the final investigation, he goes to the mysterious lighthouse and is confronted by Dr. Cawley, who tells him that he is not an investigator and has been a patient of this institution for the past 24 months and this was all an elaborate plan to get hold of his sanity again before they decide to take serious action.

Is Doctor Crawley lying and only they convinced our detective that he was a patient of this institution or was he here all along and not a detective?

Analysis

Now let's talk about my analysis of the movie.

To say that I love this movie is an understatement. This is a masterpiece of storytelling! The build-up of tension in this movie is quite thrilling. Right from the start as you see the Island, you know something very dramatic will happen.

The energetic performance of Lionardo DiCaprio is amazing and this would be one of the best performances. His hallucinating scenes were very well done and completely contrasted with his detective personality.

The movie is a cinematic masterpiece as well. You can see that the director knew his colours and compositions so well. The use of nature, the stormy sea, the fog, the increasing rain as the story progresses and the bright sunlight at the end as the story conflict is solved, all reflect the mood perfectly.

The background score was one of the best things I loved in the movie. They used classical compositions and used the music to build up tension so well.

What can I say about the writing? It is very well done too! Some of the quotes from the movie are quite memorable.

"You're smarter than you look, Marshall. That's probably not a good thing."

My favourite quote would undoubtedly be from Teddy as he says, "Which would be worse - to live as a monster or to die as a good man?" and walks off to what looks like a lobotomise voluntarily.

I highly recommend it! It's a must-watch and an absolute masterpiece!

My ratings: 9.6/10

Until next movie...

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13 comments
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It is a great movie. At the end, this movie leaves up to the audience what to believe and what not to. Amazing role by Leo!

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For sure bro, my theory is he didn't reset back and just pretended to be a detective again just because he said "Which would be worse? To live as a monster or to die as a good man?"

What do you think, bro?

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Yes. I believe that he has started playing the game as well. It looks like he now knows what he is upto and playing with this thing is his only option.

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It's been more than 10 years since I saw this movie and the first time I saw it I didn't even understand what it was. It is simply a masterpiece and it was the first movie I ever saw in this genre. That might be the reason why it surprised me so much.

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It is amazing. When you see it the second time, you will realise so many things that you missed, everyone of us did. I watched it a couple of times already and it is really a masterpiece.

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I saw this movie last year and it was intense because I didn't understand if what this character was experiencing was a fact or a hallucination, the truth is that it was a very well executed work in every sense.

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Yes, it makes you question what is reality and what's not. Very well directed for sure!

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Decent film but I was able to spot what was really happening well before it was revealed to the audience. I don't generally rate Leo in any roles where he is meant to be taken serious as an adult, but this was one of his better performances.

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Yup, has to be one of his finest performances