Shutter Island (2010)

Written by Wuchak on March 16, 2024

Leonardo DiCaprio’s trip to Fantasy Island

In 1954, two US Marshals (DiCaprio and Mark Ruffalo) are sent to an island off the coast of Massachusetts to investigate the disappearance of a patient from the asylum for the criminally insane located there. The lead detective suspects something really fishy going on.

"Shutter Island" (2010) is like a combination of “The Shawshank Redemption” and “A Beautiful Mind” with a little “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.” Being helmed by Scorsese, it’s a top-notch production with a stellar cast, including the likes of Ben Kingsley, Max von Sydow, Michelle Williams, Patricia Clarkson and Jackie Earle Haley.

The first three quarters are quite good as a slow-burn eerie investigation with the milieu of post-WW2 America and interesting flashbacks to Dachau Concentration Camp. Unfortunately, the last quarter ruins the movie for me. Don’t get me wrong, the ‘twist’ could’ve been done in a compelling, streamlined way, such as in “The Sixth Sense,” but instead everything’s unnecessarily drawn out. For instance, the final sequence between DiCaprio and Michelle Williams is dreadfully dull.

Still, it’s a matter of taste. So, if what I described above intrigues you, give it a watch. Many cinephiles hail it.

Fittingly, the title, “Shutter Island,” is an anagram of "truths and lies" or "truths/denials.”

The film runs 2 hour, 18 minutes, and was shot mostly in Massachusetts, but some stuff in Los Angeles and northeast of there at Hearst Ranch, San Simeon.

GRADE: B-