Shutter Island

My Crazy Heart Will Go On - Mark Ruffalo and Leonardo DiCaprio in Shutter Island
 
Time Investment: 138 min.
Return on Investment: 100 min.
 
“We all go a little mad sometimes,” Norman Bates says in Alfred Hitchcock’s psychological masterpiece Psycho. But exactly where does going “mad sometimes” end and insanity begin? The blurry line denoting the edge of sanity is at the core of Martin Scorsese’s own Hitchcockian thriller, Shutter Island (Paramount).
 
When one of Ashecliffe Mental Hospital’s most dangerous patients goes missing in early-’50s New England, U.S. Marshall Teddy Daniels (Leonardo DiCaprio) and his new partner (Mark Ruffalo) venture to the institution’s home on isolated Shutter Island to investigate. There the radical (or is it mad?) Dr. John Cawley (Ben Kingsley) cares for the most damaged criminally insane patients. After a hurricane strands Teddy on the Island, he seeks to uncover the truth and unravel his own secrets surrounding his raid on a concentration camp in WWII and his wife’s tragic death (Michelle Williams). As the investvation intensifies, so does Teddy’s paranoia, leading us to one mindfuck of a finale.
 
Scorsese’s overindulgent film is heavy on the fantastical, both stunningly surreal and laboriously absurd. He attempts to touch upon gothic classics like The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, but never gets it just right (DiCaprio’s uneven tone is also to blame). The film’s release was delayed from a prime fall release and for obvious reasons: Shutter Island will make you feel horrible in a way few films can (remember Haneke’s Funny Games?). Its genius trick—and greatest flaw—is getting you to question how mad you are yourself.