This takes place in 1954. U.S. Marshall Teddy Daniels and his new partner Chuck Aule travel to Shutter Island, the site of the Ashecliffe Hospital for the criminally insane. They've been sent there to investigate the disappearance of Rachel Solando, a woman who ended up at Ashecliffe after drowning her three children.

Teddy has an additional goal: finding Andrew Laeddis, who he suspects is an unreported extra patient at the hospital. Laeddis was responsible for Teddy's wife's death in a fire, and although he swears to Chuck that he isn't planning to kill Laeddis if he can manage to find him, it seems doubtful that he's telling the truth.

Various details, as well as the somewhat "off" behavior of several of the hospital staff and patients, lead Teddy to believe that the head of the hospital, psychiatrist Dr. John Cawley, is hiding things, and he's determined to get to the bottom of it all. But in a place like Shutter Island, is there anyone, even himself, that he can really trust?

This movie took me two days to get through. It wasn't bad, necessarily, but it took a while to grab my attention. I was uninterested in Teddy and his hallucinations about his wife. Those two needed to get a room, which is a weird thing to have to say considering that she was technically dead.

The story picked up as Teddy gained more and more reasons to doubt the motives of everyone around him, but when the biggest twists were finally revealed, my reaction was something along the lines of "that's it?" I kept waiting for something else to be revealed, but no, that really was it. The setup was...a pretty big stretch. I did think, however, that Teddy's final line was excellent and chilling.

(Original review posted on A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions.) ( )

Found this number in a Metra station. Can't believe I read the whole thing...hollywood screenplay fodder...lame psychological thriller...hate this kind of stuff... ( )

wow. this book was messed up. and intense! geez! i couldn't put it down! the entire book has you thinking one thing, and then towards the end reveals it to be something entirely different. to think that the entire book was Teddy's (or rather Andrew's) delusion! wow. awesome. can't wait for the movie to come out in February! :) ( )

A US Marshall investigates an isolated institute for the criminally insane.

It's like he made a huge list of things he liked in other movies, and just strung them together. I would have given it just a C, but the song over the closing credits is good enough to make the other two hours worth sitting through.

Concept: B
Story: D
Characters: B
Dialog: B
Pacing: D
Cinematography: C
Special effects/design: D
Acting: B
Music: A

Enjoyment: C plus

GPA: 2.3/4 ( )

I love movies that you can watch over and over again, and see it in a different light, with a different perspective, each time. Movies that show you something new nearly every time you watch them - that's the mark of a great movie. Shutter Island is one of those movies, in my opinion. ( )