Spoiler Alert! If you haven’t seen Shutter Island ( or have not read the book) and don’t wnat to know what happened at the end, skip this rant.
There has been a lot of back and forth over the twist ending the Shutter Island, many, like Roger Ebert, think it is brilliant and fits well with the dark tone of the film, while others dislike it’s coming completely out of left field.
Personally it pissed me off. I don’t mind a twist ending that you don’t see coming, like in The Sixth Sense, Memento or The Book of Eli, but it does have to play fair to a certain extent, and having it revealed at the end that everything you saw before wasn’t real, like in Jacob’s Ladder, is a cheat. Now I know that some of you out there will argue that if you go back over what happened in Shutter Island, the clues are there.
Maybe, but I don’t feel like rehashing such a depressing and aggravating film. For me, when you invest time and interest in a film you want a better resolution than the one given here.
