Leonardo DiCaprio and Martin Scorsese, notable Hollywood names, are in another blockbuster film made in a big studio. From a glance, the poster looks like another excuse to use A-list actors in a high-production movie, where their skills sometimes aren’t used to their fullest potential. A-listers look tired themselves, knowing that if they continue to pursue their franchises, they may be stuck with typecasting. However, “Shutter Island” (2010) is a psychological thriller where the cast did not disappoint whatsoever.
This exceeded my expectations, from the well-paced scenes to the clever dialogue between Teddy Daniels (Leonardo DiCaprio) and Chuck Aule (Mark Ruffalo).
The film opens with U.S. Marshal Daniels and his new partner, Chuck, in pursuit to investigate the disappearance of a patient at Ashecliffe Hospital, located in the Boston Harbor Islands for the “criminally insane.” We are introduced to Teddy Daniels as a World War II legend who lost his wife in an apartment fire started by the maintenance man, Andrew Laeddis.
As the Marshals arrive on the island, they are met with an eerie set of eyes belonging to the institution’s officers, who never fail to be far behind with their firearms in hand. It represents the level of uncertainty and the fearmongering state the entire island is in, where people don’t trust strangers “lending a hand.”
Teddy starts to point out all the aspects of the island he recognizes from WWII, such as the electrified perimeter. This is the first of many times Teddy will second-guess the institution, where he believes people are being held as prisoners, not patients.
As the story progresses, we are introduced to not only the deteriorating psyche of missing psychiatric patient Rachel Solando but also the longtime psychological struggle of Edward “Teddy” Daniels, or as it is written on his birth certificate, Andrew Laeddis.
Which could be worse — to live as a monster? Or to die as a good man.
- Andrew Laeddis
(Ashecliffe patient, DID, and PTSD)
If you want a film with a well-written plot twist, you must add Shutter Island to your list! If I were to rank all of Scorsese’s critically acclaimed, blockbuster, and Oscar-winning films, this would be in my top three.
While Daniel’s suspicions of the hospital’s true intentions grow, he starts to question whether it’s his PTSD or if the hospital has been drugging him. This is hinted at as his late wife’s ghost begins to appear every time his war PTSD flares up. His hands begin to tremor, and his eyes become immensely sensitive to light, leading him deeper into his rabbit hole of delusions.
As Daniel delves further into the web of Ashecliffe history, he uncovers that there is indeed a 67th patient that doesn’t exist, whom he believes to be Laeddis. The lines begin to blur between delusion and reality. Watching this film a second time around, it is evident that everyone at Ashecliffe, including the patients, is aware that Teddy is, in fact, in a simulation for treatment.
Shutter Island is a film that focuses on a dissociative identity disorder treatment plan acted out through role-play therapy created by Dr. Cawley to prevent his lobotomy enforced by the government. It was his last chance to become Andrew again, but it was time for him to deal with his baggage from his resurfaced memories and vivid emotions after dealing with the fact that his wife murdered their children, and he killed her for it.
Andrew designed all these anagrammatic names and fake situations, such as Rachel Solando, for the sake of not discovering the real man hiding in the archives of his soul. To only find out that the soul that was truly lost was that of his late wife, Dolores Chanal, or, to Andrew, Rachel Solando.
In the final quarter of the film, it is evident that Andrew’s guilt overcame him like a wave when he realizes that everything was a lie and he was his suicidal wife’s murderer. He couldn’t live with the thought that after all their years of marriage, he never provided enough attention to his wife’s devastating psyche, even after her first attempt.
“Shutter Island” is a film that will have your heart racing, your intellect stimulated, and your eyes widened in search of the next plotline to challenge you.
