Review: Shutter Island a psychological joyride

Editor's Note: This review may contain spoilers.

The latest psychological thriller, Shutter Island, presents the question: could insanity be contagious?  The film, released on February 19, makes you question this concept, and more, as you follow the winding plotline and complex characters.

The movie takes place in 1954, a time period emphasized by the underdeveloped, unethical practices in the field of psychology.  Teddy Daniels (Leonardo DiCaprio) is a U.S. Marshal recruited to investigate a case at Ashecliffe Hospital, an institution for the criminally insane on Shutter Island in Boston. 

The case is regarding a missing patient, Rachel (Emily Mortimer), a war widow who is at the penitentiary for drowning her three children.  She invents a fictional world in which her husband and children are still alive, and the workers at Ashecliffe are simply neighbors.

The disappearance of the prisoner turns into a full-fledged mystery, with each clue leading to a more complex development. 

We learn from the very beginning that Daniels' wife died in a fire.  Daniels visually suffers from a wounded past from losing his wife and serving in World War II.  As Daniels spends more time at the hospital, his traumatic past continuously haunts him.  His time working on the case is plagued with nightmares of his wife and the war, constant hallucinations and fragmented thoughts.

Daniels finds it difficult to uncover answers from this twisted mystery.  Dr. Cawley (Ben Kingsley), the head psychologist at Ashecliffe, is incriminatingly unhelpful with the case, refusing Daniels access to patient files.

Daniels' sidekick, Chuck Aule (Mark Ruffalo), serves as the ideal partner with his insightful and supportive personality.  He suggests that the psychologists at Ashecliffe manipulated Daniels to become involved at the hospital. 

The theory of unethical operations being conducted at the institute is developed, and it becomes evident that Shutter Island is not what it appears to be.  From that point on, it becomes difficult to decipher who can be trusted and what is real.

The most prominent concept presented in Shutter Island is the definition of insanity.  The characters discuss how easily one can be labeled as crazy.  The patients state that once one doctor calls someone insane, all the other doctors backs them up, and any attempt at objection is simply perceived as proof of the insanity.  With this broad definition, anyone could be insane, which leads to some thought-provoking discrepancies.

The setting of the mental institute is effectively established with senses of menace and trepidation.  There are numerous images of locked gates, electrical fences and armed guards.  Even the patients create an air of uneasiness, with their unusual characteristics and their status as murderers.

The trapped feeling is also a vital aspect of the setting.  Once Daniels arrives at the island, a violent storm erupts that makes it impossible for him and Aule to leave.  They cannot call outside of the island since lines are down.  The ferry is the only way on and off the island, limiting any means of escape. 

The case creates a trapped sense as well, since the clues lead to constant dead-ends.  Audience members are frequently looking for answers in the jumbled possibilities.

As the movie continues, there is an artistic contrast between the ordinary circumstances of the main character in the beginning to the end, which is filled with complex hallucinations.  At first, the beginning seems to be too average, yet the artistic purpose is soon revealed.

There are several intriguing concepts that mirror each other.  The missing prisoner mirrors Daniels, since they are both widows.  Daniels has fractured flashbacks to his complicated past, which mirrors the scrambled clues to the missing patient case.  The unethical practices at the institute set up a clear mirror of the holocaust.

The ending was mind-blowing, and connected all the loose ends in a satisfactory manner.  The only weakness was its slight openness at the conclusion, with there being possibilities for two different ending, though the ultimate end is assumed.