Review:
Shutter Island

Plot:

U.S. Marshal Teddy Daniels investigates the mysterious disappearance of a murderous patient on the remote Shutter Island.

Review:

I purposely left the plot summation a one-liner. Why? Because this movie is a total mind-f***. I don't think there's honestly any better way to put it than to say how this movie will leave you guessing until the very end.

I feel like Martin Scorsese hit the nail right on the head, and hard, with this film. From the commercials, I assumed the movie would be somewhat of a horror flick, taking bits and pieces from thrillers reminiscent of Alfred Hitchcock. Instead, I got less horror, more hitchcock, and that's not a bad thing at all.

Leonardio DiCaprio plays Marshal Teddy Daniels, and let me just say that his performance completely changed not only my opinion of him as an actor, but put him in my top five actors category. That's not to say I never liked Leo, but I never found his performances to be anything noteworthy (one exception: Catch Me If You Can...fantastic movie). Leo does a fine job of smacking that silly notion right out of my mind and imprinting a performance that I can't even begin to measure.

It's incredibly hard to write a review about this movie without giving away spoilers, but I'm going to keep trying here.

Leo's character Teddy arrives on Shutter Island to look for a missing patient, a murderer on the loose and seemingly gone without anyone knowing where she went.

Teddy races to put the pieces together, and uncovers something much much deeper. He falls right into the hands of a large conspiracy, where the doctors and faculty of the island are all taking part in a secret government operation to create super soldiers that can feel no pain. Or is that their true motive?

Either way, Teddy tries his damndest to get to the bottom of it. The movie makes great use of flashback scenes. In some movies, flashbacks feel like they separate the movie into pieces, but in Shutter Island not only are they necessary, but they MAKE the movie.