I recently went to see the new thriller out called Shutter Island. It was directed by Martin Scorsese. It is a psychological mystery thriller, and is set in 1954 around a US Marshall Teddy Daniel's, played by Leonardo Di Caprio, and his partner Chuck Aule, who is played by Mark Ruffalo. The film is based on a best selling 2003 novel by writer Dennis Lehane. The film starts with Teddy Daniel's with his partner on a boat on there way to Asahecliff Hospital on Shutter Island, which is a hospital and prison for the criminally insane. They are called to the island because of the disappearance of a woman called Rachel Solando, who suspiciously disappeared from a locked room.
When Daniel's and Chuck begin the search with the guards of Shutter Island they soon start to uncover certain things about the disappearance. There are certain things that are said and done within the hospital that makes everyone of certain suspicion to Daniel's and Chuck, like how she escaped from a door that was locked fro the outside and can only ever be opened from the outside, and how a note was left which seemed to be directed at Daniel's and Chuck, they are also suspicious of how nobody knows how she left with no shoes no sign of breaking out or anything. When Daniel's asks to see the personal files of all of the people who have ever been at Shutter Island he refuses, then we meet a man who brings even more suspicion into the frame of the film. His name is Dr. Jeremiah Naehring, and is a German man who tries to cover up his accent but with Daniel's being ex military who fought the German's spotted it straight away.
In the morning, they interview patients from Rachel’s group therapy sessions, one of whom passes Teddy a warning to run. Teddy explains to Chuck the real reason he took the case: after being transferred to Ashecliff, Andrew Laeddis disappeared. When Teddy investigated, he met a former patient who claimed that the facility was performing human experiments. Rachel is finally found near the lighthouse but she is unresponsive to Teddy’s questioning. He eventually finds George Noyce, the man who told him about the experiments. George says that the whole situation is a game for Teddy’s benefit and that he is afraid of being taken to the lighthouse.
Teddy tries to reach the lighthouse and discovers a cave where the real Rachel Solando is hiding. She was a doctor at Ashecliff until she found out about the experiments and was committed as a patient. She explains that the hospital is using psychotropic mediaction in an attempt to master mind control, with the goal of creating sleeper agents for use in the Cold War. She says that Teddy has been similarly drugged since he arrived on the island.
Teddy finally makes it to the lighthouse and finds Cawley waiting at the top. The doctor reveals that Teddy is actually Andrew Laeddis. He murdered his manic depressive wife after she drowned their three children, and then created a fantasy where he was a hero to cope with the pain. He invented Rachel Solando as part of his delusion. He has been under the care of Dr. Sheehan, the man he thought was Chuck, for two years. Sheehan and Cawley decided to try a role play experiment, allowing Andrew to live out his delusions in an attempt to bring him back to reality.
Andrew’s memory comes back and he makes peace with his past, but later he appears to have a relapse and Cawley is forced to lobotomize him. Before the surgery is performed, Andrew asks Dr. Sheehan if he thinks it would be worse to live as a monster or die as a good man, leaving it unclear whether he had a relapse or is feigning delusion in order to have a permanent escape from reality. The film ends with an ambiguous shot of the lighthouse.
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