A Return Trip to “Shutter Island”
Originally published at Reel Life >> Are you Living Yours?. Please leave any comments there.
Martin Scorsese returned in 2010 with the psychological thriller “Shutter Island”, starring Leonardo DiCaprio as US Marshall Teddy Daniels who is sent to the Ashecliff Hospital for the criminally insane to investigate the disappearance of a patient. Set in 1954, Scorsese does a magnificent job of creating mystery and suspense within the tangled web of the story. Based on Dennis Lehane’s 2003 novel of the same name, “Shutter Island” is not a fil for every one. After seeing it in the theatre in February a few weeks after it’s release, I was left a tad unsatisfied with the experience. Not to say the film itself was a let down, but parts left me in doubt of the plot twists and how Scorsese and the writers untangled the web of suspense.
I was unsatisfied, until I watched “Shutter Island” again.
This is one of the rare psychological thrillers that is better the second time around. In a small grouping with David Lynch’s “Mulholland Dr.” and Jonathan Demme’s “The Silence of the Lambs”, “Shutter Island” was in fact better after knowing the outcome. “Why?” you may be asking yourself. Simply put, “Shutter Island” may not be so much about what happens in the climax, but rather how it is woven into the story unbeknownst to the audience.
“Shutter Island” is not Scorsese’s best work, neither is it DiCaprio’s best performance. However the film will beg the question, “How did you not see that?”