Shutter Island is suspense action thriller that leaves you in suspense for well over two hours. The setting is the 1950’s, with DiCaprio playing a US Marshall, investigating a mental patients disappearance. For two days, he searches the island, tormented by illusions, bad dreams, and the murder of his wife several years before. Every time you think he’s making progress, something happens that cancels out all that you thought you knew. It’s a really good film, all the loose ends come back around and tie up nicely. The only problem with it, is that it is a really long film, with periods of inaction or situations that don’t seem to make much sense. There’s also a ton of flashback scenes.

Overall, a good watch, will make a really good rental. It’s one of those films, you have to watch in one sitting or you’ll get lost in the plot. So pay attention.

Budget: N/A
Director: Martin Scorsese
Starring:
Leonardo DiCaprio
Mark Ruffalo
Ben Kingsley
Max von Sydow
Michelle Williams
Emily Mortimer
Patricia Clarkson
Jackie Earle Haley
Ted Levine
John Carroll Lynch
Elias Koteas

This story resembles Stephen King’s other work, The Shawshank Redemption, on two points: first, the movie is about a person suffering from a lingering bad situation i.e. she is incarcerated; and second, despite that odd, the person finds a way to squirm herself out of the situation. Well, not literally, because Dolores Claiborne (Kathy Bates’s character) in this movie was not exonerated of her crime. We tend to believe that she really killed the maid in the movie. But the positivity that came from that situation was it cemented Dolores Claiborne’s relationship with her daughter, played by Jennifer Jason Leigh, another beautiful actress who can do strong straight drama. After all, this is one of Kathy’s finest performances in her sterling career.

Trivia:

Stephen King earned US$ 1.5 million when CASTLE ROCK bought the rights to this novel.

Stephen King