Katty's Pick: Shutter Island

So good. SO good. So. Good.

I have been affectionately a fan of Martin Scorsese since I saw "The Grifters" on the Channel 33 Saturday Movie Matinee when I was 13. I remember being completely appalled that the 3/6 mafia won an Oscar before he did...with respect to the 3/6 mafia of course- but Scorsese's been in the game longer. (Got to keep myself in check, just in case a member of the 3/6 mafia is a blog reader.)
Leonardo Dicaprio came later. I don't know why, but it took me a long time to take him seriously as an actor. (I'm currently going through the same thing now with Zac Efron. ) Even after I fell in lurve with Baz Luhrman's Romeo and Juliet, I regarded him as just another Hollywood Pretty Boy. I finally got around to seeing "What's Eating Gilbert Grape" when I was about 22 (thanks again, Kristen. I could give a list of awesome movies as long as my arm that she introduced me to when we lived together.) and I finally hopped full on, ring a ding- ding, to the Leo Train.
Sorry it took me so long Leo.

Anyway, enough with the back story. The short version: Marty and Leo are my dawgs and I knew they wouldn't do me dirty.
Set in the early 50's, Ted (DiCaprio) and Chuck (Mark Ruffalo) are two federal marshals assigned to the case of a missing patient at Shutter Island, a maximum security mental institution for the criminally insane.
Ted gets suspicious as the doctors in charge are less than cooperative and everyone from the nurses to the patients seem to be hiding a secret. Determined to find out what's happening at Shutter Island, Ted plays an intriguing game of cat and mouse with the head doctor (Ben Kingsley) while struggling with sudden migraines and hallucinations of his own grisly past.
The only way out is a ferry controlled by the authorities that seem quite determined to keep him there. Will Ted and Chuck ever make it out to the real world again?

Scorsese really went old school in the making of this movie. Everything from cinematography to screenplay to soundtrack was classic film noir. His direction as always was brilliant as was the well crafted story.
I usually pride myself on guessing the twist of a movie either from the trailer or in the first hour of the feature. I actually guessed the twist from the trailer and was still fooled. Scorsese's brilliantly concealed hints only served to intrigue me instead of reassuring me of my previous convictions of how the story might end. I was continually led away from those convictions until the moment the truth came out-- I was happily surprised I'd been right in the beginning and delighted I'd been fooled so effectively.
A word of caution though- I was extremely glad I did not have to watch this alone as there were lots of creepy moments and intense silences.
All in all I loved it and can't wait to see it again.