Shutter Island Changed My Heart

***Spoiler Alert***

My first viewing of Shutter Island was disappointing. DiCaprio’s fake New England accent irritated me. The transitions between reality and his hallucinations of the war were choppy, and they became even more so when intermingled with the hallucinations of his late wife. And I felt like there was too much too much backstory relayed to me in an ineffective manner.

The first viewing wasn’t all bad, though. The music, hearkening back to the film noir genre, is perfectly haunting and captured me from the first note. The camerawork is interesting and Scorsese’s use of color is beautiful. The recurring symbols of fire and water (representing delusion/hallucination and reality/truth, respectively) are used cleverly throughout the entire movie. And the end of the film is amazing, with the final scene leaving the viewer trying to figure out if what they saw was disturbing or just.

Those incredible last 30 minutes, especially the final scene, drew me in enough to make me want to watch it a second time... so I immediately hit play. As I watched the movie again I realized: this film is absolutely brilliant. There is just the right amount of subtlety throughout, so first time viewers won’t guess what is happening immediately and multiple time viewers will appreciate it even more. What appear to be disdain and stubbornness from the orderlies and policemen are realized, upon second viewing, to be the frustration and fear attributed to being in the presence of an unrestrained, delusional, murdering patient. The supporting performances are perfection. Chuck (Mark Ruffalo) and Cawley (Ben Kingsley) spend most of the film giving subtle worried glances, ironic smiles, and lines full of hidden meanings that are only noticed by a viewer who knows the ending. What appears to be a marshall (Ruffalo) looking out for his partner is found to be the constant care of a psychologist checking in with his patient, continuously asking “you okay, boss?” when things get rough.

All that to say, while I was skeptical of Shutter Island at first, and I still have my complaints about a few aspects of the film, a second viewing has converted me. I am now a fan of this psychological thriller, and  I’m happy to have been reminded of just how brilliant a director Martin Scorsese is.