Shutter Island (2010)
Originally coming out in October 2009 the only reason this movie was even eligible to be considered in this series was the studio pushing the film back to the next year due to financial issues. I have never been the biggest fan of horror movies which is probably the reason I never got around to watching this movie until now despite it being from acclaimed director Martin Scorsese as the marketing made it seem like an all-out horror film which it really isn't. With that though I also stayed away from most of the buzz and conversation surrounding this movie so I went into this movie pretty blind not just from a plot perspective but beyond, I went into this movie with no clue what it was and no expectations which is the best way to see this movie in my opinion. The less time you have to prepare and think about it the better you are going to be brought into the madness of this film and its world, also I think if you got the ending of this movie spoiled for you it would drastically hurt your experience with it. For this reason, I am going to be pretty vague in this review so I apologize in advance if that is bothersome for you.
And starting with what this movie is I think it is a really effective mystery movie. The basic premise is that a U.S. Marshall and his partner are assigned to go to this island which acts as a Mental Hospital for the Criminally Insane and find one of the women who has gone missing. Throughout this movie, there are twists and turns as they try to find out exactly what is happening and it fully got me invested. There was a sense that something deeper was at play and throughout this entire movie I kept creating different theories and ideas of what was going on and I loved this. Not only does it make it just an interesting movie to watch but without giving too much away it does have a worthy payoff that feels satisfying and well built to while also not being too obvious. I know I got the ending wrong with my predictions and where I can't speak on how the mystery holds up on a rewatch as this was my first time seeing the movie I will say it does really work on the first watch through. The thing about the ending that really blew me away was how much further it goes than most movies like this, again I apologize for being a little vague here but normally movies like this will end at the reveal of what is going on but this movie shows the consequences of it and builds off of it in really interesting ways. Until the literal final scene, there are pieces of this film you can analyze and debate with some incredible meanings and ideas to them which seemed to be a theme for Leonardo DiCaprio in 2010 between this and Inception.
Speaking of Leonardo DiCaprio he is great in this movie. Just like in Inception he is a character who is still dealing and processing his personal demons and once again he does a great job with this. He is both presents in what is happening and stuck in his past which is a hard line to draw but DiCaprio does a great job with it. Mark Ruffalo also really impressed me in this film as his partner. He is not in a lot of this movie and his performance alone isn't necessarily the most impressive but he is the perfect actor for DiCaprio to bounce off of and is the definition of a great supporting actor. Also being someone who doesn't normally like Ben Kingsley he was actually well cast in this movie as the main doctor of the island and as his character progresses he is effective in every role he has to play.
Speaking of Leonardo DiCaprio he is great in this movie. Just like in Inception he is a character who is still dealing and processing his personal demons and once again he does a great job with this. He is both presents in what is happening and stuck in his past which is a hard line to draw but DiCaprio does a great job with it. Mark Ruffalo also really impressed me in this film as his partner. He is not in a lot of this movie and his performance alone isn't necessarily the most impressive but he is the perfect actor for DiCaprio to bounce off of and is the definition of a great supporting actor. Also being someone who doesn't normally like Ben Kingsley he was actually well cast in this movie as the main doctor of the island and as his character progresses he is effective in every role he has to play.
With that being said there were a few small things that took me out of the movie, one of those where the horror elements. It's not quite as bad as Black Swan which I covered earlier in this series but it still is distracting. There is no need for the "jump scares" this movie provides and its always a pet peeve of mine when a psychological thriller like this reverts to cheap jumps to create tension and payoff of said tension. Luckily the movie doesn't do this too much and really only inhabits a few different sequences later in the film. I also felt disappointed by the location of this movie, maybe it is because of the size of the island but I felt like for having what could have been such a memorable location they did really nothing with it. This is an island filled with creepy caves and crevices that could have created an uneasy feeling with the natural claustrophobic feeling that you get from being basically trapped on an island but none of this really connected for me past the very opening scene when they arrive on the island with a storm approaching. It's not that this lowered the quality of what we got but rather was a missed opportunity that jumped out to me as the film concluded.
Still, overall Shutter Island is a pretty effective psychological thriller which kept me engaged and guessing in the palm of its hand. Filled with great performances and direction which is to be expected from Scorsese by this point Shutter Island will stick out to me when I look at 2010 as a year in film and time will tell if it is able to stick out when I look at the decade overall. If you are a fan of interesting psychological thrillers I do highly recommend Shutter Island, just promise me you won't go spoil it for yourself on it's Wikipedia page beforehand so you can be that person who perfectly predicts what is going on.