Spoiler Review - Shutter Island

The film Shutter Island is based on the novel of the same name by Dennis Lehane, and is directed by Martin Scorsese. It is a crime/psychological thriller and mystery. Throughout the film it constantly hints at clues then just as you think you have figured out the mystery the storyline takes a U-turn and furthermore adds to the suspense.

 
 

The film stars Teddy Daniels (Leonardo DiCaprio) and his partner Chuck Aule (Mark Ruffalo) who are US Marshalls they go to a prison for the declared criminally mentally insane. The man in charge of the care of the prison patients is Dr. Crawley (Ben Kingsley) and at the end of the film the question you are left with is whether his character is good or evil? 

 

The purpose of their journey to the prison is to investigate a missing woman named Rachel Solando. The mystery of the film is brilliant, even up to the last scene of the film you are still very unsure of the full truth. Is the protagonist Teddy Daniels or Andrew Laeddis?Is he insane or a victim of the corruption the prison is operating through? 

 
The first mystery that’s sets the tone of the film is the riddle believed to be left by Rachel Solando, the escaped prisoner, the rule of 4 who is 67? Indicating there is an unknown 67th patient at the prison.

 The overall head of the ‘psychiatric hospital’ is Dr. Naehring (Max von Sydow), who is a mystery as a character, he has a reserved but strange personality. Everyone except Teddy Daniels has no real back-story or any revealing of their past in the whole story, which adds a lot to the suspense of the film, just thorough the plot. Many flashbacks are featured through out Teddy Daniels life, especially with his wife, kids and WW2 when fighting against Germany along with the discovery of the persecution of Jews.

The story is a real mind bender when introduced into both the possible Rachel’s and when she suddenly returns to the prison untouched by the harsh weather. The flashbacks of his wife and children create an illusion still not answered of whether he killed his wife due to her killing the children, or whether the children and mother all died in a fire, set by a man named Andrew Laeddis. 

A very convincing portrayal of characters by all the actors in the film added with the amazingly mind-twisting storyline is what really makes the film a success.

 
Additionally the ability to still have so many unanswered questions by the end of the story is quite brilliant. Are Teddy Daniels and Andrew Laeddis the same person? Is he really a patient in the prison? Is Rachel Solando real?   


 
Who is the 67th inmate at the prison? The most important question left unanswered though: Is Teddy Daniels living in a fantasy world or is this reality?

The only guarantee is his lobotomy he will undergo. to sum up the film in one line I quote Di Caprio’s character when he says “Which would be worse, to live as a monster, or die as a good man?

The film created a lot of mystery and suspense, some of it still unanswered and overall a very mind-twistingly confusing film that still managed to entertain and fascinate as a thriller, so for that I give it a rating of 5/5.