Shutter Island

"Shutter Island" was directed by Martin Scorsese. It stars Leonardo DiCaprio, Mark Ruffalo, Ben Kingsley, Michelle Williams, and others. It was based off of the book of the same name by Dennis Lehane.

It's 1954. Teddy Daniels (Leonardo DiCaprio) and Chuck Aule (Mark Ruffalo) are the two U.S. marshals  who are sent to Ashcliffe Hospital for the criminally insane...for the select few people in America who haven't seen this trailer 87 times. They are there to investigate the disappearance of a female patient from the hospital. Michelle Williams plays Delores, Teddy's deceased wife who is frequently seen in flashbacks and such. Ben Kingsley plays Dr. John Cawley, the head of the hospital. There's a brief plotline...there are several twists in the movie. And I have decided to not ruin it for people because I think everyone should go out and experience it for themselves.

Well, Leonardo DiCaprio is a great actor. I used to not like him, until I saw him in "Catch Me If You Can;" then that all changed. But, in my defense, he was really annoying in "Romeo & Juliet." After Martin Scorsese decided to ditch Robert DeNiro, after 22 years of working with the actor, he decided to jump on Leonardo DiCaprio next and has casted him in all of his movies since. This turned out to be a great idea and we learned that Martin Scorsese brings out the very best in Leonardo DiCaprio. He is great as the lead character in "Shutter Island" and shows range in the character that is not immediately evident. The rest of the cast is great as well and everyone works very nicely with Leonardo DiCaprio. Good thing too, because otherwise the movie would have been a disaster. And one more thing, Sir Ben Kingsley is a great actor. I love the man and thought he deserved to be mentioned by name in this section. He also gives a fantastic performance in this movie.

"Shutter Island" is ridiculously visually appealing. I guess we have Martin Scorsese and the person actually operating the camera to thank for that one. There are great shots of the island, aerial, long, close-ups...everything - it's really great. The camera movement is also great with the quick zooms and quick shifts between different parts of a scene. Most of the scenes are dark, dull colored, making for the appropriate dramatic tone for this type of movie.

The musical score was fantastic in this movie. Just like in Alfred Hitchcock movies, ("Shutter Island" is being called a "Hitchcockian" thriller...yes, it's a thriller and not a horror movie no matter what people say) music is essential. The music is dramatic and intense and fits each scene so well and just adds to what the audience is seeing on the screen. Without it, the movie would have been significantly less entertaining and successful. Many times the score to a movie is even more important than the actual visuals. They should go together perfectly.

Normally a movie that is over 2 hours long (this one is 138 minutes if anyone was wondering) would cause my ADD to set in at least a little bit. That actually didn't happen. The movie is very well paced. Some scenes do seem a bit long, but they just help to explain things a little which is always good. The movie never got boring and as it progresses new things are revealed and obvious things are not as they seem...because that would suck the fun out of literally everything.

This movie currently has a 68% on Rotten Tomatoes. I'm not quite sure how that happened because this movie is way better than that. I assume that some of these reviewers just hate all movies and thus ruined the average for everyone.

Some people had a problem with the end of the movie. They felt like too much is blatantly explained to the audience. Once again I don't know what these people are talking about. I thought things wrap up well for the movie. Since when is explanation bad? It's better than having the audience completely make up in their own mind what actually is happening. It worked well in "Psycho" - having the ending explain what was going on...and it works well in "Shutter Island" as well...although "Psycho" is the best movie ever...but after Alfred Hitchcock, Martin Scorsese is my second favorite director of all time.

So this movie was supposed to come out last October, but it didn't...so I had to wait an extra 4 months. It was really depressing, but completely worth it. "Shutter Island" will most likely never be considered classic like some of Martin Scorsese's older films like "Taxi Driver," "Raging Bull," and "Goodfellas"...all three of those are amazing movies by the way and are highly recommended for everyone to see at least once in life. That doesn't stop "Shutter Island" from being a 4 star movie as far as I am concerned. It's the first great movie of 2010 and Martin Scorsese once again proves what a great filmmaker he really is. The acting directing, score, etc, come together to form an extremely well-made and highly entertaining movie. I will most likely be seeing it again in theaters and will one day own it on DVD...

-Joseph Sbrilli