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In his new movie “Shutter Island,” director Martin Scorsese shifts focus from the psychology of having a loaded gun pointed at your face to the psychology of being trapped in your own mental prison.

The outcome is a suspense-thriller-turned-drama that challenges audience members to think and never loose focus throughout the entire movie.

Although the story is unique from the bloody gangster epics Scorsese has created in the past, the film does have one constant – it connects the director and lead actor Leonardo DiCaprio for the fourth time in their careers.

The year is 1954 and DiCaprio’s Teddy Daniels, a troubled war veteran turned U.S. Marshall, is paired up with new partner Chuck Aule (Mark Ruffalo) to investigate a mysterious disappearance at the Ashecliffe Asylum, which happens to be located on an island in Boston Harbor.

The two struggle to breakthrough in their investigation and are ready to abandoned their case, but tragically can not leave the island due to a hurricane that rattles the island and Daniels’ psyche.

The more he stays on Ashecliffe, the more Daniels’ mental state seems to regress, which impairs his judgment to do his assigned job.

 

 

He discloses to a trustworthy Aule what his real intentions for being on the island, and they are not to find the missing prisoner (Emily Mortimer) that they were designated to find.

In addition, Daniels tells his new partner that he is suspicious of the people who are in control of the island and that he is afaid they may be harming the minds of its patients rather than abating their mental problems.

As the pair pries at the mysteries of the island, Scorsese’s direction creates a looming question: are the doctors running the island themselves insane?

The mysteries of the institution and the island itself play out, but that is not what makes this suspense-thriller so memorable.

DiCaprio leads a phenomenal cast, which contributes largely to the film’s success. Teddy is exposed through flashbacks, as well as hallucinations, as a man with a haunted and violent past.

Scorsese purposefully inserts Teddy’s background information to catapult him to the point where the lines of rationality and insanity are blurred.

Ruffalo’s calm demeanor perfectly compliments DiCaprio’s high-strung character, but it is Sir Ben Kingsley that steals the show as Dr. Cawley, one of the doctors behind the Ashecliffe experiment.

Cawley discreetly tells the two intruders just enough to get Daniels riled up.

He brilliantly manipulates the minds of his so-called “patients,” as well as holding control over the Marshalls, who seem to believe they have superiority on the island.

Patricia Clarkson, Jackie Earle Haley and Ted Devine all deliver brilliant cameos, which alter the direction of the movie.

Mortimer, Michelle Williams and Max von Sydow all deliver haunting performances and are perfectly casted.

“Shutter Island” may leave more than half of its audience members befuddled or confused, but Scorsese undoubtedly has proved his greatness once again.

In a subject unfamiliar to him, he creates an epic investigative thriller and leaves his audience eager to discuss their interpretations of the film and all of its characters.