As a film nerd, walking into a Martain Scorsese movie gives me some mixed emotions. First and formost I am excited. The new movie by the man that made Taxi Driver, Raging Bull and the Departed has the potential to blow me away. I could be walking into a very memorable experience. Also I have some hesitation. I don't want to just blindly love the movie because Scorsese directed it. I want to look at it fairly and make sure im not being duped by a multi-million dollar budget and some talented actors. Walking out of the theater I knew for a fact I had just had a cinematic experiance. I had just been through an adventure and had a wonderful time. Shutter Island is a psychological thriller that is the emotional roller coaster most film goers are looking for.

It's 1953 andLeonardo DiCaprio plays U.S. Marshall Teddy Daniels investigating an escaped patient at a hospital for the criminally insane. The prison, which its located on the deadly Shutter Island, is filled with questions. How did the prisoner escape from the locked cell without shoes on her feet? What is happening in Ward C? And more importantly, why does everyone in charge seem to be keeping a secret? As Teddy goes deeper and deeper into the rabbit hole we only find more questions that we are dying to answer.

Shutter Island is an attack on the senses, a theme park ride. The film is so raw I could feel the wind from the hurricane and smell the cigarettes being smoked. We watch Teddy Daniels get pushed to the limit physically and mentally. Teddy is ripped through this story as hard as a character can be and although we want to cheer for him no matter what, he is as unreliable as the rest of them. That's what makes Shutter Island so fun. It's a mystery of identities and hallucinations that is as gripping mentally as it is physically. Despite negative reviews, no one can deny Shutter Island is a fantastic ride.

WARNING: HUGE SPOILERS BELOW!!!

My biggest problem with the film was the only real problem anyone could have with the film. Teddy really being a prisoner. It's not that I don't like the twist or it doesn't make sense in the over all film (which I believe it does), it's mainly that the twist turns Shutter Island into two different films. First we have a movie about the mystery of the escaped prisoner. Suddenly we throw all of that out the window and say, "No, this is a movie about a man that went crazy!" Well that's great but my problem is I really liked the mystery story. In fact I liked it more than this new story. I wanted to see Teddy uncover the secret of the lighthouse and escape on a canoe with his partners body on his back! I wanted it so badly that watching the twist unfold in front of me hurt a little. After recovering from that heart ache I was able to sit back and look at the film and realize the truth: It was great. The movie is fantastic and I can't deny that. But what did the whole first hour mean? Why was it there?

Obviously Dennis Lehane, the author of the book, didn't throw the whole first half of the story in there just for an awesome plot twist, right? The mystery of the escaped prisoner has to be more than just an easy distraction from the real story or the film would just be harassing us. Towards the end of the film Teddy talks about his wife, "She told me she had an insect crawling around in her brain, pulling at different wires." To me the island represents Teddy's mind. He is an insect crawling around his brain, looking for different wires to pull. He reaches the island through a voyage of sickness (Teddy vomits the whole way there) and he is trapped on the island looking for escape. When he enters the island he must surrender the gun. He has no protection in his mind or on the island. Each character represents different emotions he has that are keeping him from realizing the truth about his wife. Dr. Crawly, played by Ben Kingsley, represents his knowledge that something is missing in his brain and his fear of that missing truth. Dr. Naehring, Crawly's assistant, represents his psychological self trying to analyze what is wrong. He also fears this. The warden, who Teddy fears and avoids, only has one real scene with Teddy. In the little cart they talk about violence, "God loves violence, violence is what we are." The warden obviously represents the violence Teddy inflicted on his wife and his fear of that. His partner Chuck, played by the amazing Mark Ruffalo, doesn't as much represent an emotion but is more of a helper, keeping him on track by distracting him from the truth. Rachel, the lost prisoner, is his psychosis, pulling him deeper and deeper into madness. Lastly is the story of the death camp. The death camp and the dying officer are both a manifestation of the horrible memory of Teddy finding his children dead and watching his wife die.

Knowing this makes enduring the first half of the movie a little easier. If only the first half was a little less cemented in reality I could forgive Scorsese for the plot twist completely. To me, the most interesting part of the film is the last scene. Teddy sits on the steps with Chuck and asks him, "So Chuck, how are we going to get off this island?" or something to that effect. This communicates that he once again has fallen back into his psychosis and no longer remembers the truth. Chuck nods to Crawley indicating they will go forward with the lobotomy and Teddy says, "Is it better to live as a monster or die as a good man?" This indicates that Teddy has chosen to not remember. The memory of his dying children, like the death camp, is too overpowering to deal with. Teddy chooses suicide and our story ends here.