Shutter Island

Shutter Island is a film from 2010 starring Leonardo Dicaprio as the main character, Teddy Daniels, a U.S. marshal. The year is 1954, and he is assigned to investigate the disappearance of a patient from Boston's Ashecliffe Hospital located on a mysterious island called Shutter Island. He's been pushing for an assignment on the island for personal reasons, but before long he wonders if he has been brought there as part of a twisted plot by hospital doctors whose strange treatments are unethical and sinister. Teddy's clever investigating skills soon provide a promising lead, but the hospital refuses him access to records he suspects would give him more information about the case. As a hurricane cuts off communication with the mainland, more dangerous criminals try to escape in the confusion, and the puzzling clues multiply, Teddy begins to doubt everything - his memory, his partner, even his own sanity.

In the end, a major plot twist is revealed. It turns out that "Teddy" is actually a delusional mental patient in the hospital, not a U.S. marshal. He murdered his depressed wife Dolores Chanal after she drowned their three children. Because he was a mental patient at the hospital, the doctors decided to try a role-play experiment to allow him to live out his delusional fantasy in order to come to terms with reality. The treatment plan works, and he is retold what has happened to him and he accepts what he did to his wife. However, in the final scene he relapses to a delusional state. It is implied that he is faking his relapse so he will not have to deal with the mental suffering of his act, because he feels personally responsible for his wife murdering their children.

 

It's Such a Beautiful Day

I've always appreciated animated films that are as impactful, if not more impactful than big budget, live action films. Animation literally transforms nothing into something and there are no restrictions on what you can do and as long as you can imagine it, you can animate it. That being said, It's Such a Beautiful Day offers a very deep, meaningful story told through simple animation and narration.

It's Such a Beautiful Day tells the story of Bill, a seemingly average man who has seemingly average thoughts and feelings. Throughout the course of the film however, the audience learns about Bill's serious health condition and his questions about love, life, death, and what it is all about. He is worried about things that everyone is worried about and the film does a very good job of making Bill seem relatable and real. Strange and sometimes graphic images are used to illustrate how Bill starts to see the world through his illness and they are the most powerful scenes throughout the film in my opinion.

The film is an hour long and is actually a compilation of three twenty minute short films, all directed, produced, written, and narrated by Don Hertzfeldt, an American film maker. The movie is split up into three chapters but it flows very smoothly and keeps the attention of the audience throughout the entire picture. I often compare this movie to Daniel Keyes' short story, Flowers for Algernon, as they both illustrate the progression and regression of characters dealing with severe illnesses without skipping out on the turmoils that the characters live through. I love both of these pieces of work because the reader/audience can experience the character through their emotional spectrums. How they act and feel when they are happy, angry, scared, or just confused is really interesting to me and it makes the character more believable as it adds dimensions to everything they do.

I would recommend this film to anybody that loves animation and very compelling and thought provoking stories. I haven't seen any other Don Hertfeldt films but I will be sure to check out his other works as I hope they are as well executed as It's Such a Beautiful Day.

Silver Linings Playbook

Silver Linings Playbook a warm, fun, and emotional drama comedy. Bradley Cooper plays Patrick, a man suffering from a mental breakdown, but he’s a man with a plan, determined to get his wife back, through exercise and self-improvement. While home from the mental hospital he must contend with his loving mother (Jacki Weaver) and father (Robert DeNiro), and his father’s desire for connection through their shared love of football, all the while attempting to stick to his goal of connecting with his wife. He meets an unbalanced young widow, Tiffany (Jennifer Lawrence) who promises to help him, in return for his help in achieving one of her dreams.

Director David O. Russell creates some of the most natural scenes I’ve ever seen and heard, while characters talk over, under and through one another. The timing of the gags is perfect, which really adds to the genuine funniness of the film. I laughed a lot during this movie, and the reason being is that there’s no reserve with the characters. The rawness of the relationships and the dialogue of each character truly made a hilarious sight to both see and hear. The script is phenomenal and brilliantly thought out. Everything came together, one way or another in the film and there were many aspects of the film that seemed almost too complex to tie together at the end.

The effects of mental illness are felt and evident throughout, rather than simply talked about or seen once. Because Patrick and Tiffany lack inhibitions or filters, the kind of genuine conversations or interactions that are available to them elevate this from the dull to full excitement. Patrick and Tiffany are in another place, and as their families struggle to be supportive, they find that their illness has removed them from their lives. They find that their problems are what make them so perfect for each other. With a not-so-perfect final dance, they realize that they are meant to be, and the silver lining is found.