Rating of
3.5/4
Best Film of 2010 so far
The Film Rebel - wrote on 04/17/10
When I saw the trailer for Martin Scorcese's "Shutter Island" last year, I had pretty neutral expectations. I thought to myself "Well, this could be one of the 10 films that'll have a chance at nabbing best picture, or it could epicly fail." After a couple months of waiting, I learned around September that the release for "Shutter Island" had been pushed back from October of 2009 to Febuary of 2010. I thought "Oh, Jesus, this is what happens to just about EVERY bad movie. They push it back to do reshoots and the movie turns out to be shit." Well, I finally saw "Shutter Island" about a week after its release. WOW! While this is definitly not among Martin Scorcese's best work ("Goodfellas", "Casino", "The Departed"), it is easily one of the best films of the year so far.
The plot follows two US Federal Marshalls, Teddy Daniels (a chillingly intense Leonardo Dicaprio) and Chuck Aule (Mark Ruffalo), who go to investigate an island off the coast of Boston. The island is known as Shutter Island and it just so happens to be a mental hospital for some of the dangerous patients. Their job is to investigate the dissapearance of a young woman. However, it turns out there is more to the case and they even learn that the island and the people running it have a few secrets of their own. This leads to Daniels learning some strange things and even discovering why he's truly there to begin with.
The acting in this film is top notch. Leonardo Dicaprio gives the film's best performance as Teddy. Ruffalo offers excellent support as Chuck.Acting veteran Ben Kingsley gives a great performance as the curator of Shutter Island. The cinematography is amazing and the film has you at the edge of your seat the whole time. If I had any problems, its that it dragged in about only one or two places. Also, the film is somewhat confusing. However, once you see the brilliant twist (a twist that somewhat reminded me of the ending to "Memento"), it'll all come together well. Though the film does have some minor flaws, it is still without a doubt a fantastic film.
All in all, "Shutter Island" is a wonderful film and easily my favorite film of 2010 so far. I'm not sure if its even playing in theaters anymore, but if you get the chance to catch it on DVD, take that chance!
