Shutter Island
Overview
Shutter Island is a 2010 psychological thriller directed by Martin Scorsese, based on the 2003 novel by Dennis Lehane. The film is set in 1954 and follows U.S. Marshal Teddy Daniels (Leonardo DiCaprio) and his new partner Chuck Aule (Mark Ruffalo) as they travel to Ashecliffe Hospital, a forbidding mental institution for the criminally insane located on remote Shutter Island in Boston Harbor. A patient named Rachel Solando has mysteriously vanished from her locked room, and Teddy and Chuck are there to investigate. The hospital is run by the mysterious Dr. John Cawley (Ben Kingsley), who seems to be hiding something. Teddy has a personal agenda as well: he believes that Andrew Laeddis, the man who murdered his wife in a fire that also killed her, is being held somewhere in the hospital. As Teddy investigates, he experiences debilitating migraines, strange visions of his dead wife Dolores (Michelle Williams), and nightmares about liberating a concentration camp in Dachau at the end of World War II. The hospital staff seems uncooperative, patients warn him to leave before it's too late, and a hurricane cuts off the island from the mainland. The film is shot in a claustrophobic, oppressive style — constant rain, grey skies, and the looming gothic architecture of the hospital. Teddy's investigation uncovers horrifying possibilities: maybe the hospital is performing illegal lobotomies on patients. Maybe Dr. Cawley is experimenting with mind control. Maybe Rachel Solando is not a real person. The film builds toward one of the most famous twist endings in cinema history: Teddy Daniels is actually Andrew Laeddis, and he is a patient at Ashecliffe. The entire investigation was an elaborate role-playing scenario designed by Dr. Cawley to help Teddy — now revealed as Patient 67 — confront the truth that he murdered his wife after she drowned their three children. Chuck is actually his primary doctor. The final scene is heartbreaking and ambiguous: Teddy seems to have accepted the truth, but then he calls Dr. Cawley by his character name and walks willingly toward lobotomy, telling Chuck, "Which would be worse — to live as a monster, or to die as a good man?" Leonardo DiCaprio delivers one of his most emotionally raw performances, capturing Teddy's descent into madness. Shutter Island was a box office success, earning over $294 million worldwide, and has grown in reputation as one of Scorsese's most underrated films.
