"Shutter Island" - in theaters

I really wish that Leonardo DiCaprio would act in a nice romantic comedy. Why is it that he always has to play such complex, damaged characters? Seriously Leo... take a Xanax and make me laugh for crying out loud.

That being said, I actually did enjoy "Shutter Island". I was apprehensive to go and see it, mostly because I thought it was going to be more of a horror film, and we all know how I feel about horror films. But, I was pleasantly surprised. I only had to plug my ears twice (which is what I do when I get scared... it's weird, I know). The rest of the film is simply mysterious and suspenseful, and frankly, very entertaining.

Probably what I loved most about this entire film was Leonardo's come-and-go Boston accent, which he honed in "The Departed", and got to drag out into this film. He plays Teddy Daniels, a U.S. Marshall called to a mental facility on the aptly titled Shutter Island. A prisoner has escaped, and it's his and his new partner's (Mark Ruffalo, who's always such a delight to watch on screen in my opinion) duty to find the missing woman. But, being a Scorsese film, things are never that simple, and Teddy is soon investigating the hospital itself as well as facing his own personal demons. He has a rollicking case of PTSD from his time as a soldier in World War 2. That being said, the audience is treated to many flashbacks of Teddy as a soldier, wandering through a concentration camp, coming across corpse after corpse and shooting German prison guards. It's slightly horrific and gory, but necessary to understand the demons of Teddy's past and present.

I enjoyed the slight moment of Jackie Earle Hayley, who plays a prisoner in the dangerous Ward C of the hospital. He is one creepy dude, but his tete-a-tete with DiCaprio is fabulous.

The last line of the film has really stuck with me since leaving the theater this morning, so much so that I'm still thinking about it now. I'm tempted to write it here, but while I don't think it would tell much, I don't want to spoil the ending.

So, on the CWeave scale, I would rank this film an 8. While I don't think I'll own it, I do recommend that everyone see it. I promise, it's not as scary as it looks. And let's face it: you can't go wrong with Scorsese. Or at least most of the time you can't...