Shutter Island is a beautiful noir nightmare that unfurls with graceful artifice to a slightly obvious conclusion. There will be some who won’t appreciate the almost cartoonish movie-ness that permeates every frame, from the special effects to the performances. Regardless, this is an undeniably entertaining motion picture.
The film begins on a ferry to Boston’s Shutter Island Ashecliffe Hospital, a mental asylum for the criminally insane. U.S. Marshall Teddy Daniels (Leonardo DiCaprio, Gangs of New York, The Departed, Aviator) is vomiting from sea sickness and eventually manages to wrench himself out of the bathroom and onto the deck where his partner, Chuck (Mark Ruffalo, Blindness, Brothers Bloom) waits. The two are on their way to investigate the disappearance of a particularly violent female patient. The year is 1954. As the boat nears the shore, director Martin Scorsese (Taxi Driver, The Departed) holds a shot of the island as it gradually looms larger, allowing us to bask in its delicious eeriness. It is a simple, chilling sequence, perfectly executed and completely haunting.
It is one of the many brilliant moments that populate this strange and terrifying film. If the sum of its parts do not quite equate to the word “masterpiece”, Scorsese can be 
forgiven for giving us a film this rich in ideas and imagery. Based on a novel by Dennis Lehane (whose books have been turned into some great movies including Mystic River and Gone Baby Gone), the film deals with, among other things, the Holocaust, repression of memory and tragedy’s imprint of insanity. It is also kick-ass scary.
Scorsese embraces 50s B-movie noir constructions right down to DiCaprio’s chomping detective archetype. There is no interest in realism here, everything is stylised, from deliberately clunky storm/hurricane special effects to the trippy and unpredictable dream sequences. Or are they dream sequences? The film constantly plays with the audience’s sense of reality, and it is solely 
Scorsese’s consummate skill as a director which prevents it from collapsing in on itself. Watching Shutter Island, one can forgive its slightly bloated running time, the occasional pieces of ludicrous exposition and an off-key supporting performance by Emily Mortimer (Match Point, Lars and the Real Girl). Despite these flaws, this is a film that demands a repeat viewing.
Director: Martin Scorsese
Cast: Leonardo DiCaprio, Mark Ruffalo, Michelle Williams, Ben Kingsley, Max Von Sydow, Patricia Clarkson, Jackie Earl Haley
Fantastic review Sean. I saw this film last night and I loved it. It was honestly one of the most frightening films I’ve seen in some time – the music, the acting, the shots – all of it combined into a spectacle that made my entire body tense. Scorsese, you’ve done it again.
Sean, I wanted to love this film, but just couldn’t. I wonder what you would make of it, had it not been made by the eminent Scorsese? While I expect more, I also found myself trying to forgive more considering who was at the helm.
I think you’re spot on about the 1950s aesthetic – though to me, this resulted in a quaint/oldfashioned feeling film. There is no doubt Scorsese is a cinematic goldmine, I just think he came up relatively empty this time around.
I think the beauty of the entire movie is you don’t know how to feel and you don’t know which to believe. You are very much in the mind of Leo’s character. Paranoid and stuck between two different things that both could very much be true. I called it very early on. The fact that it didn’t show him anywhere else but the Ferry and the Island. He has experienced Trauma. The Doctor said he does experimental procedures. Patients seemed coached. Just met his partner. And there wasn’t much to the movie unless he was crazy. Frankly, practically from the beginning I just felt that’s the only way it could have been.