The year is 1954, at the height of the Cold War, when U.S. Marshal Teddy Daniels (Leonardo DiCaprio) and his new partner Chuck Aule (Mark Ruffalo) are summoned to Shutter Island to investigate the implausible disappearance of a brilliant multiple murderess from a locked room within the impenetrable Ashecliffe Hospital. Surrounded by probing psychiatrists and dangerously psychopathic patients on the remote, windswept isle, they arrive into an eerie, volatile atmosphere that suggests nothing is quite what it seems. With a hurricane bearing down on them, the investigation moves rapidly. Yet, as the storm escalates, the suspicions and mysteries multiply each more thrilling and terrifying than the next. There are hints and rumors of dark conspiracies, sordid medical experiments, repressive mind control, secret wards, perhaps even a hint of the supernatural, but elusive proof. Moving in the shadows of a hospital haunted by the terrible deeds of its slippery inhabitants and the unknown agendas of its equally ingenious doctors, Teddy begins to sense that the deeper he pursues the investigation the more he will be forced to confront some of 2 his most profound and devastating fears. And he realizes that he may never leave the island alive.

At first glance Shutter Island isn’t your typical Martin Scorsese film. It is a much more psychological thriller and mind game kind of movie that one might associate more with a director like David Fincher yet it does have that very trademark kind of Scorsese feel to it. It was a little like what if Scorsese directed a film written by Fincher with all his cat and mouse and mind games but with all the very Scorsese like elements and cinematography to it. It is also the kind of film that shows that Scorsese is one of the finest directors in all of Hollywood as he takes a leave of absence from his normal genre of gangster films and proves that he can deliver in another genre as well. It is the kind of film that messes with your head the whole time and at the very last moment blows you away as all its secrets are revealed and even leaves you with one final question as the curtain closes. It is the kind of film you need to watch more than once to catch all the subtle and brilliant nuances that Scorsese delivers fantastically.

I was reminded quite a bit of the Sixth Sense when seeing the film as it not only has the overly creepy feel to it, that unraveling storyline as you try and figure out what is going to happen next it also delivers one heck of a twist in the end. The kind of twist we have not seen or felt since the Sixth Sense and something you just wouldn’t expect from a Scorsese film. But it’s not just the twist that makes the movie so good its all the little things leading up to it, all the small things, all the clues that keep you enthralled and completely invested in the film and the twist just makes the entire journey worthwhile.

The film is not for the lighthearted though as Scorsese delivers tons of violence and plenty of gruesome moments throughout the entire length of the film. But he handles the violence and shocking images in an almost dream like way that distances you from them as you go deeper down the rabbit hole trying to solve the riddles of the film. The film almost has a dream like feel to it as Scorsese weaves memories in with the live action and tells the back story as the film unfolds. Shutter Island is a departure from your normal Scorsese film but at the same time it embodies everything most have come to love from the great director.

Leonardo DiCaprio has to be one of my favorite actors in all of Hollywood right now. He can deliver so many facets to a characters, from angry, to torn, to heartsick, to confused he just has such depth and emotion as an actor you completely believe in him as the character. It is Leo that sells this movie and probably one of the reasons Scorsese has made him his go to guy in all his recent films much like Deniro in their younger years. Mark Ruffalo also puts in a fine performance as Leo’s partner as the both delve deeper into the rabbit hole. Scorsese is one of my favorite directors and he rarely delivers a miss and Shutter Island is one of his best films to date and that’s saying a lot from a director like Scorsese with thirty years of great films to his resume.

Grade: A