There's Something Strange Afoot On Shutter Island

The 2010's have shown a lovely amount of versatility on the part of master filmmaker Martin Scorsese. He's examined the levels of excess rich white dudes can get away with in America in The Wolf Of Wall Street, confronted experiencing a crisis of faith in Silence and he found time to make Hugo, a 3D family movie that also served as a homage to one of cinema's earliest pioneers, George Melies. Before all of those though, he kicked off the decade with a horror/thriller starring long-time collaborator Leonardo DiCaprio entitled Shutter Island, which became the directors second biggest movie of all-time at the domestic box office.

Shutter Island, a mental health institution for violent and dangerous individuals located on an isolated island, is not a place for the faint of heart, though Federal Marshalls Edward Daniels (Leonardo DiCaprio) and Chuck Aule (Mark Ruffalo) stroll into the place with a breezy sense of experience and confidence as they're tasked with helping to figure out just what happened with a patient who recently escaped from the facility without leaving a trace. Unbeknownst to the staff on Shutter Island, Edward has come to the island with ulterior motives intent on uncovering a sinister conspiracy on this island....but the individuals in charge here just might not let Edward keep on snooping around without putting up a fight.

Right from the get-go when Edward and Chuck arrive to the island, Shutter Island begins to clearly relish the opportunity to go as grandiose as possible. A piece of obviously ominous orchestral music blares over the soundtrack as the camera swirls around the the two leads being driven to the titular facility. There's a more restrained feel to most of the rest of Shutter Island, but, without divulging spoilery plot points, it needs to be said that the more overt nature in the way the movie presents the sinister nature of the area the audience and the lead character is trapped in, as well as Edward's slavish commitment to the idea that something ominous is going on at Shutter Island, makes it obvious that some kind of rug is gonna eventually be pulled out from under the audience.

That zaps some of the suspense out of the proceedings, but luckily, plenty of intensity is still churned up by the level of skill found in the visuals and particularly in the writing, with the script being notably proficient in depicting Edward's ever growing desperation at figuring out what's really going on here. It doesn't hurt that little-known actor Leonardo DiCaprio is the one playing Edward and he does a remarkable job displaying the vengeful spirit that is driving our protagonist to be so committed to his investigation. Watching DiCaprio play with the fluctuating temperament of Edward as he travels across this island full of secrets is a ton of unpredictable fun to be sure.

Surrounding DiCaprio is a fine roster of talent, including Mark Ruffalo as helpful partner in this case and Ben Kingsley and his soothing vocals as a who runs the show on Shutter Island. It would have been nice for characters played by supporting players like Jackie Earl Haley and Max Von Sydow to get more development, but both men work well in the minimal screentime they get. All of these actors cozy themselves up to the unique suspense-driven atmosphere Shutter Island is working overtime to create, an ambiance that's helped majorly by the various sets and environments the movie is shot in.

There's a lot of good foreboding domains that the Edward and others in the plot stumble into and a section of the island designated as Ward C is particularly chilling to look at what with its caged corridors and dingy old-timey jail cells. Once the third act gets going in Shutter Island, and some answers are provided, things slow down just a bit, as for every satisfying and enriching answer Laeta Kalogridis screenplay provides, you get another revelation that had me going "Wait, that doesn't quite fit in with what's established before." It's not the perfect way to end things, but it's a far from bad twist ending, especially since it closes on a nicely done somber note.