Shutter Island
[Warning: Spoilers]
This movie was a bit of suspense, a bit of a thriller, a mystery, a ghost story, a crime drama, and more all wrapped into one. And it was fantastic!
Leonardo DiCaprio is always so talented, and his portrayal of U.S. Marshall Teddy Daniels is no exception. He and his partner Chuck (Mark Ruffalo) come to an island that houses a mental hospital, including a ward of dangerous criminals. They are investigating the disappearance of one of the patients, but Teddy is also interested in the place because it houses (or used to house) an arsonist who he holds responsible for his wife's death. Teddy is super suspicious about what kind of treatments are being used on the island, and the disappearance begins to look more like a piece of a larger conspiracy. Teddy keeps having headaches, coupled with terrible flashbacks and dreams, but it seems to him over time that the medication he is being given for the headaches is making the visions worse.
To make a long story short, the hospital fakes the discovery of the lost woman, but Teddy knows that something is wrong. He later discovers that she was once a nurse but she knew too much, so she has faked her own death and is hiding on the island. His attention turns then turns to the arsonist, Goerge Noyce.
In the end, he knows that the lighthouse just off the island is somehow connected to the patients who go missing, so he goes to investigate. Finally, the doctors confront him with reality: for the last 48 hours they had been giving him a chance to live out his fantasies and imaginings in the hopes that he would discover the truth. He is not Teddy Daniels, U.S. Marshall, but Andrew Laeddis, a patient of the hospital for the past two years. He realizes, not for the first time, that his wife was troubled, and that she drowned their four children before shooting herself in front of him, causing his mental breakdown.
However, by the next day he seems to have forgotten. As he goes off with the main doctor, Laeddis implies that he is actually aware of who he is and why he is there, but he is willingly being lead to a lobotomization. The implication is that he can no longer take the pain. This scene can alternatively read as another breakdown by Laeddis, or as proof that the whole thing is a complex plot in which the Marshalls have been trapped. Of course those two endings are a little less likely considering all of the evidence planted throughout the film.
As the movie went on, I knew that things were not as simple as what I was seeing and I had many theories about what might actually be happening, but none quite touched on the tragic story that was Laeddis' reality. I was reading into every detail, desperately searching for answers about the secretive nature of the doctors and the mysteries of the missing patients. But I wasn't prepared for what he would find.
Great actors, great story, and all-around great movie. This is one of those films that I think everyone should watch even just once in their lifetime to fully understand the masterpiece. It is good cinema while still being highly entertaining.
This movie was a bit of suspense, a bit of a thriller, a mystery, a ghost story, a crime drama, and more all wrapped into one. And it was fantastic!
Leonardo DiCaprio is always so talented, and his portrayal of U.S. Marshall Teddy Daniels is no exception. He and his partner Chuck (Mark Ruffalo) come to an island that houses a mental hospital, including a ward of dangerous criminals. They are investigating the disappearance of one of the patients, but Teddy is also interested in the place because it houses (or used to house) an arsonist who he holds responsible for his wife's death. Teddy is super suspicious about what kind of treatments are being used on the island, and the disappearance begins to look more like a piece of a larger conspiracy. Teddy keeps having headaches, coupled with terrible flashbacks and dreams, but it seems to him over time that the medication he is being given for the headaches is making the visions worse.
To make a long story short, the hospital fakes the discovery of the lost woman, but Teddy knows that something is wrong. He later discovers that she was once a nurse but she knew too much, so she has faked her own death and is hiding on the island. His attention turns then turns to the arsonist, Goerge Noyce.
In the end, he knows that the lighthouse just off the island is somehow connected to the patients who go missing, so he goes to investigate. Finally, the doctors confront him with reality: for the last 48 hours they had been giving him a chance to live out his fantasies and imaginings in the hopes that he would discover the truth. He is not Teddy Daniels, U.S. Marshall, but Andrew Laeddis, a patient of the hospital for the past two years. He realizes, not for the first time, that his wife was troubled, and that she drowned their four children before shooting herself in front of him, causing his mental breakdown.
However, by the next day he seems to have forgotten. As he goes off with the main doctor, Laeddis implies that he is actually aware of who he is and why he is there, but he is willingly being lead to a lobotomization. The implication is that he can no longer take the pain. This scene can alternatively read as another breakdown by Laeddis, or as proof that the whole thing is a complex plot in which the Marshalls have been trapped. Of course those two endings are a little less likely considering all of the evidence planted throughout the film.
As the movie went on, I knew that things were not as simple as what I was seeing and I had many theories about what might actually be happening, but none quite touched on the tragic story that was Laeddis' reality. I was reading into every detail, desperately searching for answers about the secretive nature of the doctors and the mysteries of the missing patients. But I wasn't prepared for what he would find.
Great actors, great story, and all-around great movie. This is one of those films that I think everyone should watch even just once in their lifetime to fully understand the masterpiece. It is good cinema while still being highly entertaining.
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