Shutter Island is the fourth collaboration for Martin Scorsese and Leonardo DiCaprio, and the movie delivers everything wanted in a great detective story. The entire setting of the movie is instantly intriguing. A patient has mysteriously vanished from a high security criminal asylum set on a remote island near Boston. Two federal marshals (played by DiCaprio and Mark Ruffalo) are dispatched to the island to investigate the disappearance just before a hurricane hits. Everything about this movie is classic storytelling. Helmed by a director other than Scorsese some of the classic elements (wind blowing door open, lights going out and flickering) might have been considered cheesy, but not in Shutter Island. This just elevates the film to a timeless status. It also doesn’t hurt that so many great actors appear in the film. Ruffalo and DiCaprio work well as new partners set in a crazy situation, and they have some great banter between each other. Ben Kingsley and Max Von Sydow play the head doctors of the asylum, whose motives are never clear. There are also a lot of great actors who basically have only one or two scenes in the film. Emily Mortimer, Patricia Heaton, Elias Koteas, and Jackie Earl Hayley all are great, but have too few scenes. That is my only complaint with the film and obviously it doesn’t really affect my overall thoughts of the movie. Shutter Island is a grandiose adventure where the viewer gets the feeling that they have explored every inch of the island. The ending will divide and has already divided people’s thoughts on the film, but whether or not you are pleased with the ending does not change the experience getting there. Shutter Island is worth a second trip.
A Gold Banana
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