Review of Shutter Island (2010) by Charles B — 10 Jul 2014

"Spoiler Alert!" Although, I've tried very hard not to give anything away here, I can't help but feel that I might have done so inadvertently. Not that it would destroy the impact of the film since the film does not try and hide anything (to a certain point) anyways. So, consider yourself warned.

I'm not a huge fan of this genre of film because I feel plot twists are overwhelmingly used for the sole purpose of messing with the audiences head now-a-days, which makes everything that preceded it a waste of time. There are, however, three reasons why this is not the case here despite the required twists: 1) It was just so much fun watching how Scorsese played around with the genre, he truly is a master; 2) the twist here is used to advance the story. This can be seen by the extra time the film spends at the end laying out the dramatic implications of what the reality is; and 3) Leonardo DiCaprio gives his best performance, by far, which really goes a long way in making sure we are willing to except whatever happens.