By LINDSI HEBERT, Staff Reporter.
A mental hospital for the criminally insane isn’t the best place to hold a federal investigation.
Directed by Martin Scorsese, “Shutter Island” is a psychological crime thriller that tells the story of U.S. Marshal Teddy Daniels (Leonardo DiCaprio) and his partner Chuck Aule (Mark Ruffalo) as they investigate the disappearance of a murderess on Boston’s Shutter Island Ashecliffe Hospital right after World War II. Teddy had been pushing for the opportunity to go to Shutter Island because of some deeply personal problems involving his late wife.
At first the investigation is routine. Teddy and Chuck interview the hospital staff and some of the patients. Due to the weather, they’re forced to stay the night on the island, and their investigation gets deeper. Soon, Teddy realizes that this may not be the case that he was expecting. He begins to believe that the hospital staff are hiding something, and he jumps to the conclusions that German psychologists are using radical, unethical (not to mention illegal) treatments on the patients. Putting his detective skills to work, Teddy starts to dig further.
But the weather’s getting worse, and Teddy’s health is starting to stumble. He’s suffering from migraines, and suddenly is having problems with his memory, not to mention some interesting dreams.
“Shutter Island” is just another notch in Scorsese’s’ belt. It has everything you expect to see when you watch one of his films. The shots are gorgeous. “Shutter Island” plays off of interesting color schemes that help to set the tone of the psychological mind flip you’re going to get into.
The asylum itself is incredibly intimidating. All throughout the film you can feel just how foreboding it really is, always in the background, a huge, cold brick structure bearing down upon you without actually doing anything. It’s an awesome setting for a thriller, and right off the bat you get how bad of a place it is. It even has its own soundtrack of angry cellos and French horns, and it really does a good job. Right off the bat you think “Gee, I wouldn’t want to go there. It seems unpleasant.”
The film wouldn’t be what it is if it wasn’t for the post World War II setting. Mental illnesses were just starting to be recognized as actual illnesses, and the treatments were starting to develop. This mixes well with Teddy’s distrusting of the psychological treatments and also his distrust toward German immigrants. The costumes are fitting, and the problems fit the times.
I think the only part where this movie lacks is some character development. Don’t get me wrong, Teddy is fully developed and an awesome character, but his partner Chuck doesn’t really get much light. It seems like he’s in the show just because Teddy needed a partner. Having read the book “Shutter Island” by Dennis Lehane, I know that Chuck has a lot of interesting background that the screenwriter just decided to leave out. It’s that reason that makes his character lacking, and pretty much pointless until you get to the end.
Staying spoiler free, all that you need to know is that “Shutter Island” is full of twists and turns. Don’t be that guy that tries to guess the ending before the movie’s even half way done. Nobody likes that guy, and if you don’t know what I mean, then you might actually BE that guy.
On a scale 1 to 5 gummy bears, with 5 being the highest, “Shutter Island” gets a 4.5 out of 5. The story is great, the setting is stunning and the twist is awesome and original. It’s beautifully directed.
