- Martin Scorsese's Shutter Island presents an interesting and novel combination of the locked room mystery and the psychological thriller that would have made Alfred Hitchcock proud. The locked room in this case is large, an entire island to be exact, the only way on or off of which is by ferry. The sole tenant of this island is a mental hospital "for the criminally insane," which is why Federal Marshall Teddy Daniels (Leonardo DiCaprio) is so disturbed that a patient could have escaped. But there's more to this case than meets the eye. As he tells his ever-hovering new sidekick, Chuck Aule (Mark Ruffalo), Teddy volunteered for this one. You see, he's been looking for an excuse to investigate what happened to a patient named Andrew Laeddis (Elias Koteas), an arsonist whom the marshall holds responsible for the death of Teddy's wife, Dolores Chanal (Michelle Williams). Since then, Teddy's heard rumors that the doctors on Shutter Island are experimenting on their patients, and he intends to investigate for himself.
- Before that can happen, however, Teddy and Chuck have to figure out what happened to the vanished patient, Rachel Solando (Emily Mortimer), who apparently escaped from a literal locked room. A slip of paper hidden under her bed suggests that there is an extra patient in the hospital, but neither the congenial head psychiatrist, Dr. Cawley (Ben Kingsley), nor the daunting Dr. Naehring (Max Von Sydow) admit to knowing anything about that. More confusing still is the fact that Rachel's psychiatrist left the island the day after she disappeared. Patients like Bridget Kearns (Robin Bartlett) all sound like they're reading from a script, and questions about Andrew Laeddis or Rachel's doctor are met only with blank stares. In the meantime, Dr. Naehring's accent and affection for Mahler remind Teddy a little too much of his experiences in Dachau during the war, and the headaches and dreams are getting worse. A storm's moving in, and it's going to be a big one.
- But suddenly, Rachel is back! She seems confused about Teddy's identity and what happened to the children she allegedly drowned, but is otherwise none the worse for wear. But that's not enough for Teddy. He's determined to find out who's being held in the high-security "Ward C," what experiments are going on in the lighthouse, and whether or not that really was Rachel Solando. His informant, a dangerous patient named George Noyce (Jackie Earle Haley), calls Teddy a "rat in a maze" as the hallucinations stop restricting themselves to Teddy's dreams. Finally, Teddy encounters another Rachel (Patricia Clarkson) in one of the island's many caves. According to her, the island is home to a vast array of secret, psychotropic mind control experiments. Is she crazy? "That's the Kafkaesque genius of it," she explains. "People tell the world you're crazy and all your protests to the contrary just confirm what they're saying."
- It's perhaps impossible to discuss the film's plot any further without giving it all away, but it should suffice to say that, as Teddy puts it, "whatever the hell's going on here, it's bad." Actually, the final explanation, patiently delivered by Dr. Cawley (no doubt Hitch would have used Leo G. Carroll), probably shouldn't come as a surprise to the attentive audience member, who surely noticed the film's many strange visual omissions and clues. Still, Shutter Island's plot is nowhere near as impressive as its visuals. In the hands of director Martin Scorsese and cinematographer Robert Richardson, the island comes alive as a terrifying intersection point of dreams, visions, madness, and storms. With such an outstanding cast (that includes John Carroll Lynch and Ted Levine in addition to the aforementioned stable of talent) and memorable imagery, Shutter Island stands out as a modern masterwork of psychological suspense even by Scorsese's standards.
- Between this and Inception, it was a rough year for Leonardo DiCaprio and reality.
- Ted Levine's cameo is just outstanding.
- I had to use the pause button to confirm that Bridget's water went missing, but it happened!
