Throw Away the Key.

Shutter Island

Directed By: Martin Scorsese

Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Mark Ruffalo, & Ben Kingsley

Shutter Island is the kind of thriller I like. It has a story to tell, it has interesting characters that populate it, and it always knows something that we don't...even though it is basically screaming the truth from the very first frame. It begins with these ominous musical notes that are simultaneously booming and yet subtle, setting the stage for a very dark movie. Play the movie on mute and I suspect that much of its tension will be lost. We meet Teddy Daniels and Chuck Aule (Leonardo DiCaprio and Mark Ruffalo, respectively), two investigators who have been called to Ashecliffe, a mental hospital located on the decidedly dangerous-looking Shutter Island. Faintly reminiscent of Alcatraz (or, for the Harry Potter fans, Azkaban), it is the kind of place that looks like it could drive sane men crazy and crazy men...well, even crazier. Had Shutter Island been directed by a less capable director than Martin Scorsese (And, really, who isn't less capable than him?), I think Ashecliffe would have come off looking hokey...but Scorsese wisely commands the opening scenes, filling them with foreboding shots of the journey Teddy and Chuck make into Ashecliffe. It is as though we are being led inside...taken to the mysterious hospital...plunged into the nightmare.

Once in Ashecliffe, Teddy and Chuck receive their assignment: a woman, Rachel Solando (Emily Mortimer), who brutally murdered her three children, has mysteriously vanished from her room and must now be found. The catch: the room was still locked, there was no other way out, and no one saw anything suspicious. "It's as if she evaporated straight through the walls," Dr. John Cawley (Ben Kingsley) says. After interviewing patients and orderlies, Teddy begins to suspect that something else is going on in Ashecliffe, something that transcends the disappearance of Rachel, if she even ever existed at all. Chuck does not fall easily for Teddy's increasingly-psychotic conspiracy theory, but then he hasn't experienced the past trauma that Teddy has. Teddy's wife, Dolores (Michelle Williams), was killed in a tragic apartment fire that left Teddy emotionally-drained and depressed. He is plagued by nightmares of his late wife, nightmares that give him mysterious clues about Ashecliffe, clues that suggest there is a connection between Teddy's pained past and the events that are possibly occurring in Ashecliffe.

It should come as no surprise to you that there is a final act twist that, I imagine, will be very divisive. I'm not spoiling anything by revealing the presence of the twist, as much of the marketing for the newly-released DVD and Blu-Ray hinged on it. I was actually quite dismayed by the promotional material's rather frivolous approach to the twist because, when I saw Shutter Island in theaters with no expectations, I was blindsided; I can't imagine that it's quite as effective with its presence being revealed ahead of time (a problem that, I suppose, I am contributing to as I type), but alas, this is a recurring problem with movie marketing and I doubt it will go away anytime soon. The twist is divisive because some people will find that it, in many ways, completely negates all of the events that have come before it (and, for a movie that runs over two hours, that could be infuriating). However, some people, like myself, will be impressed by the sheer intelligence of the twist. It is one of the few in recent memory that doesn't cheat; the movie presents nothing that would make figuring out the twist impossible. In fact, I would surmise that some astute movie watchers might be able to figure it out ahead of time, though I doubt anyone could foresee all of its many intricacies.

Shutter Island is technically perfect. But, this is a Martin Scorsese movie and, therefore, we have come to expect excellence in front of and behind the camera with his work. I don't think that this is going to go down as one of his career-defining projects, but I think that says more about Scorsese's body of work than it does about Shutter Island. Scorsese's oft-used leading man, Leonardo DiCaprio, is really good in his role. Much like George Clooney, DiCaprio has become such a glamorized movie star that it is often hard to relate to his characters in movies, no matter how wonderfully he portrays them. As it was with Clooney in Up in the Air last year (a very different project, by the way), DiCaprio really excels here by showing a rare vulnerability in his demeanor. His character is damaged, and DiCaprio really brings that to life perfectly, giving one of the year's best performances so far. Shutter Island is also one of the year's best (which isn't saying much in a year otherwise primarily populated by good-but-not-great). It's engaging, exciting, intelligent, and often rather frightening. You see, at the end of the day, Martin Scorsese has not forgotten what makes a good horror movie: relatable characters, great performances, an eerie setting, a chilling musical score, and actual suspense. He brings all of these things together and creates a movie that is a fine piece of cinema in just about every way. Long story short: I loved it!