"Shutter Island" Isn't What You Think

"Shutter Island" is a film directed by Martin Scorsece starring Leonard DiCaprio, based on the novel by Dennis Lehane and screenplay adaptation by Laeta Kalogridis. It premiered for general audiences on February 19, 2010 with a "R" rating. The film revolves around Boston's Shutter Island Ashecliffe Hospital in the year 1954.

Excitement about the movie grew as audiences watched previews, adapted for television viewing, that depicted a psychological thriller with intense and shocking horror moments. It was with this expectation that the audience took their seats in the theaters, preparing themselves to be shocked and scared through a twisting and turning plot that would keep their stomachs in knots.

The film begins with Teddy Daniels, played by DiCaprio, suffering from sea sickness while on a ferry. He's a U.S. Marshal with a professional mission to investigate the disappearance of a patient / in-mate being treated and held at the Ashecliffe Hospital, and is on a personal mission to uncover the corruption and inhumane practices within a mental institution for the criminally insane. His new partner Chuck Aule, played by Mark Ruffalo, seems nervous of the institution and skeptical of Daniels' claims but is comforted by the respect and reputation of Daniels.

Scenes depict the intense forboding and tension audiences have come to expect from thriller and horror movies. Storms are approaching, dangerous waves are crashing on sharp rocks, ominous music plays, large metal gates lock tight, and tall brick walls with barbed wire conjure nervousness that the characters will not be able to escape. The previews had prepared audiences that the leading character would not be allowed to leave. The audience prepares for the corruption and inhumane experiments that Daniels told Aule on the ferry.

Daniels is introduced to the medical and administrative staff but experiences roadblocks while pursuing his Missing Person investigation: witnesses are coached to give cryptic and unhelpful statements, a key physician was sent on vacation before the U.S. Marshals arrived, and evidence and statements don't make sense. Evidence of corruption becomes stronger and Daniels begins to suspect that he is being drugged against his will. The audience feels vindicated that the previews have provided a perfect plot line and they are prepared for the really crazy, scary and inhumane acts to unveil. There is discussion of experimental lobotomy surgeries being conducted on the island, nearby the institution, and while a hurricane keeps Daniels and Aule from leaving, Daniels attempt to investigate.

New plot-twists reveal an additional motive for Daniels' personal mission to uncover the secrets of Shutter Island and more of the story makes sense. Audiences accept Daniels as the hero of the story and find Dr. Cawley, played by Ben Kingsley, to be ingenuine and suspicious. Audiences also follow the association Daniels makes between German native Dr. Jeremiah Naehring, played by Max von Sydow, and the inhumane experiments conducted on Jewish people by the Nazi party in Germany a decade before the film's setting based on the U.S. Marshal's experience as an U.S. soldier in World War II.

Almost tormenting for the audience, there had been no truly scary moments. There was nothing shocking, nothing unsightly, nothing that depicted any true horror in a manner that was grotesque or implied. Preparation for moments of terror was met with moments of surprise, caught by more of a plot line that made sense and continued to what could be one of two foreseeable conclusions.

It was at the meeting of the real Rachel Solando, played by Patricia Clarkson, that we learn the missing patient was really a missing doctor who had asked too many questions. The dialogue becomes suspicious at this point and the audience begins to wonder if the writers went on strike or if there is something askew in the brain of Teddy Daniels. There is doubt about the character's sanity and, naturally, the aspirin he had been ingesting for migraines, as well as the cigarettes he was provided by an orderly after the rainstorm ruined his original pack, during his visit to Shutter Island is what is clearly to blame.

The answers were all in the lighthouse. So the audience holds on to have anticipations met when Daniels finally escapes the mental institution at the right time of day to swim to the lighthouse and break inside to uncover the inhumane experimental lobotomies being performed within. That wasn't what audiences were given.

Instead of having expectations fulfilled and eyes traumatized by horrific depictions of gore, audiences are given a twist in plot that was unexpected, unforeseen and unknown. The story that had all the blanks filled in was tossed aside in replace of a far greater and deeper story that used the previous one as a launch pad for something surprising and sinister. In the end, there is heartbreak but the audience won't ever know until it's broken.