Ultimately, Scorsese masterfully crafts a commentary on the power of cinema to make audiences feel compassion not only for likable make-believe protagonists but to also sympathize with fictional personalities that are otherwise unredeemable and who society has conditioned us to regard as unsavory. Underscoring all this is a brilliantly subtle and understated theme on prison reform and the controversial moralities surrounding the rehabilitation of criminals. The legendary director takes his love of cinema a step further by turning a rather traditional crime detective mystery into a rewarding homage to pulpy, B-quality film-noir, bathed in as many dark, ominous shadows as excessively saturated colors in the overtly dramatic flashbacks while the present reality is a bland monochromatic palette. It's a highly subjective fantasy fabricated by a hyperactive mind - a hysterical vision soaked in odd Foley effects, obvious rear-screen projection backgrounds and deliberately unconventional editing choices.
Given the full reins to fulfill his every whim, Scorsese flaunts his film nerdiness on an island oozing in the sort of hyperrealism only cinema can conjure and littered with various allusions to many film classics. From the moment DiCaprio's disorientated Teddy Daniels stares at his own reflection in the mirror, we are thrust into a strange, foreign world that's as far from our understanding of normal as possible. Marshals (Leonardo DiCaprio and Mark Ruffalo) investigating a missing person's case in a psychiatric facility populated by violent offenders. Such biased criticism, however, sadly overlooks the real genius in this beautiful gothic tale about a pair of U.S. Frankly, detractors unfairly focus on the film's conclusion and the setup to the supposedly predictable reveal. Martin Scorsese, one of the greatest filmmakers of our time, tackles his first psychological thriller in the ingeniously masterful Shutter Island, an adaptation of Dennis Lehane's novel garnering nearly as many fault-finding disapprovals as it did applauding praises.