The movie is an absolute edge of the seat stuff. From the very first scene when leonardo enters the shutter island, you can't even think of taking a call (boss' or natures included) and you just want to remain seated and witness scorsese's brilliance. Its a psychological blink and you miss thriller. Every 10 minutes you have a different question in mind. Whether this is happening or that? Sometimes you even start to feel schizophrenic yourself. Sometimes you feel its a thriller, Others it seems like a horror flick. But then, you don't expect the master to do a horror flick, right. The best part is its unpredictability. The screenplay is just amazing. Must Watch at any cost.
Well, Almost throughout the movie i kept thinking about M. Knight Shyamalan style of psychological thriller types movie making. It was as if the movie was not by Scorsese but by him. It was the same creepy feeling, the same 'I see Dead people' kinda feel to it. And it works amazingly well.
The only problem about this review is that i cannot divulge any details with respect to the storyline or else it'll be a spoiler. And the flip side is no matter how much i praise this movie, the review will not give you 'the feel' that the movie will deliver. The movie is about a mental institution headed by Dr Cawley (Ben Kingsley) where prisoners are sent to for treatment, at a secluded island. Edward Daniels (Leo), a US marshall comes to investigate the case of a patient who suddenly disappears from her locked room. Edward has his own history of being a US soldier in germany during second world war and a wife who died because a fire broke out in his house. To top that, Edward thinks that the institution itself could be practicing human experiments and the patients are the just the guinea pigs for those experiments. The movie goes back and forth from one story to the other layer by layer and the ending is just crazy (in a good way)
The Score by Gustav Mahler reminded me a lot of the great Hans Zimmer and i dont think i need to say anything more. It was just plain brilliant. It just took the movie to a different level altogether. It just sends chills through your spine in every single shot. The cinematography with all those grey tones was fabulous. The art direction and the sets were top of the line as well.
Overall an absolute cracker and a must must watch.
Feel-O-Meter : 9/10 (I know i havent said anything bad about it, then why 1 point less?? check out the PS note)
PS: I just wish that in place of Leonardo, the movie had Russell Crowe (even Bruce Willis would do). It would have taken the movie in a different trajectory altogether. Leo was not bad but he is just not as brilliant an actor to take the load of such a heavy script. His main problem is his looks. No matter how hard you try, you cannot take out 'Titanic' out of him. Just imagine Russell Crowe in the last couple of sequences in the movie while watching and you'll know what i mean. :)