Shutter Island (Leonardo DiCaprio, Mark Ruffalo, Ben Kingsley, Max von Sydow, Michelle Williams, Emily Mortimer, Patricia Clarkson) – Marty Scorsese not only helms incredible films, he doesn’t shy away from any genre. Look at his list of movies and you’ll find seven Oscar nominees and one unexpected winner in The Departed. He has teamed up with multi-generational acting stars Robert De Niro and Leonardo DiCaprio, the latter having appeared in The Aviator, Gangs of New York, and The Departed. Shutter Island expands his psychological thriller experience from Cape Fearand creates a masterpiece of intrigue, fear and mind games. DiCaprio plays U.S. Marshal Teddy Daniels, an ambitious up-and-comer looking for a plum assignment, particularly if it involves a case involving the prison for mentally disturbed inmates located on Boston’s Shutter Island in the early 1950s. At the open of the movie, he and his new partner, Chuck Aule (played by the reliable, if unspectacular Mark Ruffalo), are approaching the island by boat on a dreary, gloomy day. Everything spells trouble, and Scorsese uses every cinematic trick to set up the tone: ominous music, dark clouds, dim lighting. It’s film noir at its best.
If you are going to create a scary movie with potential evildoers, you compose the cast with two great potential villains played by Max von Sydow and Ben Kingsley as doctors with that smirk that tells us that they know more than us. Are they mad scientists, ex-Nazi concentration camp madmen, or just mind benders? Teddy is convinced they are hiding something as he seeks to investigate the crime, get the records on the murderess who escaped, and get to the bottom of whatever goes on out there. But there is an ulterior motive, too. Teddy’s wife was recently murdered, and her killer is somewhere on Shutter Island, he thinks. As Scorsese peels away every layer of the islands and its characters, more is revealed, the story gets scarier, and the special effects get better. The key to everything that follows lies at the lighthouse. DiCaprio will do anything to get there even if he doesn’t know what he is going to find. And once he arrives, the horrors and the revelations begin. Some incredible supporting actors round out the movie, including Emily Mortimer, Patricia Clarkson, and Jackie Earle Haley.
It is an all-star cast with an all-star script handled by an all-world director. For fans of the Dennis Lehane novel, the movie is true until the very end. The last line of the movie deviates from the book and will definitely confuse the viewer. Scorsese does it on purpose, and we can each speculate why. It certainly increases the movie’s buzz. And this is a film that deserves a buzz and your money. Don’t miss it.