Shutter Island Movie Review 117

Shutter Island is a movie directed and produced by Martin Scorsese and it stars Leonardo Di Caprio, Michelle Williams and Mark Ruffalo. It is based on the novel by Dennis Lehane who has written some great books such as Mystic River and Gone Baby Gone which were also made into movies. I had read the book a while back, but I forgot to put the review on the blog! Shutter Island is an entertaining read but suffers from the ending being obvious from the start. I remember realising the ending near the beginning so it was spoiled somewhat. The movie is very faithful to the book and I think that the ending is obvious early on. I know two people who haven't read the book but already had an idea of the ending just from the trailer!!!

Di Caprio plays Teddy Daniels, a  U.S.Marshal who is sent to Shutter Island with his partner, Chuck Aule(Ruffalo). They have been sent there to investigate the disappearance/escape of a patient from a mental facility on the island. Shutter Island is a facility for the criminally insane and all this is set in the 1950's. When they arrive there on the ferry, they are met by Dr. Cawley who is played by Ben Kingsley and Dr.Naehring who is played by Max Von Sydow. Dr. Cawley tries to treat the patients on a human manner which was new in the 1950's because people were just routinely given brain surgery to make them less hostile and docile.The two Marshal's have to surrender their weapons on entering and with a storn on the way, they are stuck for a while. They are watched and escorted around so things do not appear to be what they seem on the island. Di Caprio's character was a World War Two veteran and he was one of the soldiers who liberated the concentration camps and he suffers because of the horror he witnessed. His wife, Dolores Chanal is shown in flashback and is played by Michelle Williams of Dawson's Creek fame.

I liked Shutter Island as it does have a good story and a good cast. It is about two hours ten minutes long which a bit much, but it is worth the watch. If you realise the ending at the start, then you enjoyment would be a bit less as this is what happened to me.Even though I knew the end, I still watched it as it was very well-made like all Martin Scorsese movies. Di Caprio, as ever, looks very young and seems like a teenager sometimes. He always looks a little too young for the parts he plays, but he gives a good performance. If you like a whodunit type of mystery, then you will like this movie and I wonder how quickly you will realise the ending!!! THERE FOLLOWS A SPOILER SO DO NOT READ IF YOU DON'T WANT TO KNOW THE ENDING!!!!!!!

In case you were wondering about the note which Teddy finds in the cell- "Who is 67?" refers to the 67th patient on Shutter Island meaning Teddy Daniels and 'The Law of 4' refers to the names of the people in his mind. Edward Daniels is an anagram of his real name Andrew Laeddis and Dolores Chanal(His wife's maiden name) is an anagram of Rachel Solando who is the imaginary missing patient. These are the Law of 4. So, Andrew Laeddis invented the character of Edward Daniels to deal with his killing his wife. There is more to the story, but you have to watch the movie for that!!!!

Shutter Island- 7/10