Shutter Island (2010)

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3 star rating THE Screened Review by Alex Navarro

Great style and memorable performances rescue Scorsese's latest from the insanity of its convoluted plot.
GB review user review
Martin Scorsese Director previously directed Shine a Light

Shutter Island is a 2010 psychological mystery-thriller film. Based on the 2003 novel of the same name.
Trivia:

The movie's US$40.2 million opening weekend take in the United States marked a career best for director Martin Scorsese. It went on to gross over $293 million worldwide, making it the highest grossing film of his career.

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Quote: Teddy

I'm sorry honey. I love this thing because you gave it to me, but the truth is, this is one fucking ugly tie.

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Writers
Cast
Leonardo DiCaprio Teddy Daniels
Mark Ruffalo Chuck Aule
Ben Kingsley Dr. John Cawley
Max von Sydow Dr. Jeremiah Naehring
Michelle Williams Dolores Chanal
Emily Mortimer Rachel Solando
Patricia Clarkson Ethel Barton
Jackie Earle Haley George Noyce
Ted Levine Warden
John Carroll Lynch Deputy Warden McPherson
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Plot

 Teddy and Chuck entering Shutter Island
 Teddy and Chuck entering Shutter Island
At the height of the Cold War U.S. Marshall Teddy Daniels and Chuck Aule are dispatched to Shutter Island, an institute for the criminally insane, to track down Rachel Solando, an inmate who escaped seemingly into thin air from a locked cell. Solando is in Shutter Island for drowning her three children, however, as head psychiatrist Dr. Crowley explains, she remained under the delusion that she was at home and her children were alive. The precipitous cliffs that line the island make it impossible for her to have escaped that way and Daniels deduces then that Solando must still be on the island. That night Daniels' dreams seem to support his conclusion when a disturbing vision of his deceased wife who died in a fire tells him that indeed Solando remains on the island, but so is Andrew Laeddis, the arsonist who set the blaze which killed her.

The next day, while interviewing patients, Daniels is told to flee the island while he can. Unfortunately, a tremendous storm prevents them from departing, so they continue their search. During the course of the search, Daniels reveals to Aule the real reason he came to Shutter Island: Daniels believes the institute's staff is using patients as test subjects in a CIA mind control experiment and that the arsonist who killed his wife is somewhere in the facility. Solando is eventually found and brought back to the asylum in a near catatonic state. Daniels is unconvinced, and when Daniels returns to the lighthouse to investigate further he finds the real Rachel Solando is hiding in a nearby cave, not an inmate at all, but rather a former doctor gone mad after discovering the truth behind the secret experiments to turn patients into sleeper assassins.

Daniels presses on to the lighthouse and confronts Dr. Crowley about Solando's allegations. The doctor reveals, in a remarkable twist, that Daniels is not a Marshall at all but actually a delusional Andrew Laeddis who murdered his disturbed wife after she drowned their children and then, in a bit of radical role-play therapy, created the elaborate law enforcement fantasy they find themselves in now. Dr. Crowley and Teddy's partner, in reality Dr. Sheehan, another staffer at Shutter Island, allowed Laeddis to play out his delusion to its end in order to see if he could return to reality.  .
 
Laeddis, after some denial and frustration, eventually seems to accept reality and come to terms with his crimes. The next day, however, Laeddis seems to have relapsed. As he is being taken away to be lobotomized, Laeddis asks Sheehan if it's worse to live as a monster or die as a good man. The audience is left to wonder if Laeddis really relapsed, or if he simply wanted to be taken away from his pain.
Shutter Island 26 images
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311 votes, 3.9 avg.

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General Information Edit
Name Shutter Island
US Release Feb. 19, 2010
UK Release March 12, 2010
AUS Release Feb. 18, 2010
Runtime 138
Language(s)
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English
French
German
Genre(s)
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Mystery
Drama
Thriller
Theme(s)
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redemption
period piece
paranoia
mystery
loss
haunting
twist ending
police
Rating R
Alias(es)
Top Rated Lists
Screened Community Best of 2010 a list of 25 items by Badfilms
Mindbenders a list of 32 items by Strange_Bundle
Movies watched 2011 a list of 116 items by Christina
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  • In today's dollars
    Domestic $128,012,934
    Foreign +166,790,080
  • = total worldwide gross $294,803,014
  • - a reported budget of $80,000,000
  • = a 268.5% net profit of $214,803,014
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