About halfway through Shutter Island, I leaned over to ask a friend "When did Leonardo DiCaprio become a great actor?" I answered my own question; during the opening scene of Shutter Island when DiCaprio was getting seasick and the movie was unfolding brilliantly right before my eyes. The actor stars as Federal Marshal Teddy Daniels, a tough as nails federal marshal who gets called out to a remote island / psychiatric hospital for the criminally insane off of the New England shore. Set in 1954, Shutter Island has plenty of unsettling mood music and creepy imagery throughout. There is also more cigarette smoking than a Fellini film. Shutter Island is directed by Martin Scorsese, the man who has movies coursing through his veins. Scorsese has been hit or miss in recent years, but he hits the nail on the head this time out.
 
From the initial shots of the institution, to the chronic exhaustion on DiCaprio's face, Island is nearly note-perfect. There are too many twists and turns to the plot to try and explain it without giving things away, but suffice to say that there is an island populated with maniacs, a questionable Dr. Cawley (the always watchable Ben Kingsley) and his staff of physicians, nurses and heavily-armed corrections officers. Daniels arrives on the island with his new partner Chuck Aule (Mark Ruffalo), determined to get to the bottom of a case involving a female inmate named Rachel Solando, who vanished from her cell without a trace. Solando was sent to the island after drowning her three children and arranging them around the dinner table for her husband to find and then Solando ate a meal at the table before her neighbor discovered what she had done. This is about as cringe worthy a moment as I have ever seen on the big screen.

Not long after the marshals arrive on the island, a fierce storm hits, stranding them, until at least the weather clears, so Daniels and Aule start asking questions, but the answers that they receive are half truths and in some cases outright lies. Nobody on the island is willing to talk; not the staff or patients and certainly not Dr. Cawley or Dr. Naehring (Max von Sydow)

Naehring may be an ex-Nazi, which begs the question why is he employed by the United States government? As the two Marshals dig deeper, Daniels begins to fall apart at the seams. Horrid dreams, migrane headaches, and hallucinations involving his dead wife Dolores (the luminous Michelle Williams), all of which undermine Daniels' ability to do his job. Dolores died in an apartment fire and in Daniels’ dreams she appears with burns on her back. The man who started the fire may be on the island, and Daniels wants to find him. Is there a conspiracy going on? Are lobotomies being performed in the abandoned lighthouse? Why are patient records not available? Did Solando even escape? You'll have to watch it yourself to figure all of that out.

While you are figuring out the mystery, enjoy Williams' disturbing performance and DiCaprio's best piece of acting since What's Eating Gilbert Grape?  Other performances which range from good to great include appearances by Patricia Clarkson, Elias Koteas, Jackie Earle Haley and Ted Levine

Based on the novel by Dennis Lehane
Screenplay by Laeta Kalogridis

Rated R for disturbing violent content, language and some nudity

Riveting Riffs Magazine's Film Editor Barry Benintende is a freelance journalist living in San Diego. He is happily married with two sons, a daughter, two cats and Jack, the world's finest Terrier.