Shutter Island [review]

So we have two Federal Marshals finding themselves in an island where the most dangerous convicts were held, undergoing mental treatment, run by Dr. Cawley.

It started out just like any other investigation story, mission is to find this missing prisoner/patient called Rachel Solando, who seemed to have vanished into thin air. However, soon after we find Teddy (Dicaprio) revealing his master plan to his new partner, Chuck (Ruffalo) that he actually wanted to investigate about the illegal experiments on human minds in the mental institution.



Things start to get weirder and stranger by the day when they find themselves wondering if anyone at all is really telling the truth in there. Then, out of a sudden, Rachel was found, without a scratch on her, and no doubt this is making viewers like me, struggling to find out the truth.


From time to time, Teddy had these flashbacks to his old times during war with the German, having witnessed lots of death and killing so much back then. We also were revealed to his past when he was married but his wife died in a fire at their apartment.

So it made me think that it's either Teddy himself is somehow insane or everybody else in the mental hospital is plotting against him. Chuck included, at this point. And I'm just suspicious over Dr. Cawley, he seems too perfect that it's just wrong.

Thing is, movies like these are not a good choice to watch if you're tired or lack of sleep, because first of all, it's 2 hrs + long, quite lengthy, and second of all, you're gonna really need a lot of active brain cells to get through several very intense scenes.

So, having slept for only 4 hours last night to watch this, it's challenging my sanity atm. It's gonna take very careful observation to figure out things here.

Ben Kingsley is marvelous as Dr. Cawley, in fact everyone is in here. Top notch performance by all. And the direction of the movie, the pace, until the revelation at the end, yes...everything is great. The suspense is worthwhile. I love the color/effect they used in here too.

So back to the ultimate question, is Teddy really sane or insane? For me, I'd want to believe he's actually SANE. Yeah, a lot of facts are against it, but there are lots supporting that too. But I'm not gonna go into such details. But if you watch really really carefully, there are trivial things being revealed to viewers.

So two alternate endings. Whatever you like to think of it really. But no doubt, Martin Scorsese has done the book (so I've read it was based upon the book) justification, I hope.


Leo, well...what can I say? Brilliant actor in a brilliant movie. You know, the first time I saw this trailer in the cinema, it didn't attract me much, I know it's a thriller, from the look of it, but I never expected it'd be this engaging. The scene above is one of my favs. I can literally feel his pain. Like literally. His facial expression!!!~ omg...T_____T

Go watch this guys!~