At the Movies with Fatwayne

Shutter Island or, as it could have been called, “loonies on the loose” is a dark and brooding film about mental illness and the treatment of this condition during the 1950s. The story centers around the mysterious disappearance of a patient from a hospital for the criminally insane. This facility is located on an island that would be harder to escape from than the notorious prison, Alcatraz. So just how did this patient vanish from her locked room and disappear? It is the job of two U.S. marshals Teddy Daniels (Leonardo DiCaprio) and Chuck Aule (Mark Ruffalo) to solve this conundrum. Their efforts are hindered by an approaching hurricane and a hospital staff that seems to be hiding some dark secret. There are the usual flashbacks that are haunting one of the detectives, Teddy Daniels, as he tries to deal with his war experiences which included liberating the concentration camp, Dachau as well as the deaths of his wife and three children.

The marshal’s trouble is compounded by the arrival of the hurricane which interrupts power to the hospital and unlocks the doors to the cells that house the patients thus setting them free to roam about. They are also deceived by the facility’s chief administrator, Dr. John Cawley (Ben Kingsley) and his top physician, Dr. Jeremiah Naering (Max von Sydow). It seems to the investigators that this hospital is conducting sinister experiments on the patients reminiscent of those perpetrated by the Nazis.

It is an entertaining film with a few twists set in an eerie location with dark and brooding surroundings. Acting is superb and features Patricia Clarkson, Ted Levine, John Carroll Lynch and Elias Koteas as well as those already mentioned.

Quotes  -  http://www.tvmoviequotes.com/shutterisland.htm

Rated   -   R   -

Fatwayne’s Rating     -      -