Now this one has been one of the most awaited movie this year. This weekend was booked to watch Shutter Island & now I say thank god I choose it over Raajneeti this time. Michael Scorsese directing Shutter Island and with Leonardo Di Caprio in the lead. Isn’t that interesting?? And seeing the track record the duo of Scorsese & Leonardo with Gangs of New York, The Aviator & The Departed behind them, the expectations becomes even better. Based on the novel by Dennis Lehane, Sutter Island is a psycho-thriller which will keep you engrossed until the end.
As the movie starts and the music creeps in you will come to know how dark and gloomy it’s going to be. As a friend said, this movie is not about a mystery. this movie tries to solves madness and takes you along with it. Now there is no ghost here to horrify you. But there are people who does scare you. Set in 1954, Leonardo(as Teddy) & Mark Ruffalo (as Chuck) who are Federal marshals come to the remote Shutter Island off Boston where Mental Asylum for the Criminally Insane prisoners is located. The duo is set to investigate disappearance of an inmate from the asylum. Once they enter the Island they meet Dr. Cawley played by the Ben Kinglsey in his own style. The more they stay there, the more they learn about and the more difficult it becomes for them to leave this place.
But there is a lot more to what we see. Scorsese entangles the story in such a way that it keeps you engaged. Scorsese refuses to show us the key elements, and we follow the protagonist and see everything as he does. The mystery of Shutter Island isn’t what happened to Rachel Solando for which they came, but it is about how far can we trust Teddy Daniels and what is being shown to us. As each mystery unveils we question Teddy’s sanity as we see him loosing his nerves. If this movie would have been made a few year ago it would have had a better effect but still, better late than never. The movie will suck you in, twist your mind and then leaves you on the other side where you think back what had happened.
I even questioned that would Alfred Hitchcock would have made abtter movie than Michael. I know I can’t compare both of them but after watching Hitchcock-esqu angles and framing in the movie I had to question how would have he made and could it be better?? Anyways, the movie runs at its own pace with very swift editing and engrossing soundtrack. The movie play on the senses. It brings everything together into a disturbing foreshadow of untold secrets. How did a woman escape from a locked cell in a locked ward in the old fort whose walls are thick enough to withstand cannon fire? Why are there flashbacks to Teddy’s memories of the Nazi death camp? What relation does that have?? Leonardo plays his part with brilliance. He looked worn out and carried the gaze of a man who’s seen too much but fears what more’s there to discover. Tipped to be the best of his performances till date, Di Caprio impresses you with whatever he does here. Ben Kingsley is as brilliant as ever. His smile at times in the movie has a lot to say but it hides much more than that.
Scorsese evokes fear, and he does it with many notes. He betters everything off with the ending. A lot of people didn’t like the ending, few thought it was misleading, and few didn’t understood it at all. That’s why I said every actor delivers a very good performance. The movie overall has a dark noir touch attached to it.There are so many layers to the film that that you can think whatever you can. There are moments in the film where you think it is going one way, but it turns on its head leaving you thinking what happened. This is an ambiguous film from which you can take whatever mean you want out of it which in turn makes it a fantastic viewing pleasure. A typical old school suspense thriller by taking a leaf out of Hitchcock’s movies.
