Love Life, Hate Kittens

Spoilers Alert!

The inconsistencies we tend to overlook. The truths we choose to disbelieve. Are we the viewers just as willing to be fooled? Is there beauty in ignorance?

But the clues are there. Never subtle. Never in hiding. The repetition. The jarring truth thrown in our faces. “Baby, why are you so wet?” The scene where he holds Dolores and she’s bleeding in the stomach. We never once questioned why. Director’s choice perhaps. The irony and significance of “Teddy, you go after Andrew Laeddis and you’ll die here”

Then there’s Chuck. Chuck unable to take his gun out of the holster. Chuck talking to him in a soothing, calm therapist voice. Strange for someone that just met no? The way the other patients spoke to him. With pity and warning. The way the other man tried to rile up Teddy by almost breaking the story. Dangling the story of the mother drowning her three children in his face. Cruelity knows no bounds.

Teddy’s aversion to water. The way Teddy was able to get past all the guards. The menacing, rough cop act. I am a US federal marshal. Taken straight from fantasies. The way he breaks open the ‘locked gate” with his gun. We all giggled at the time because it seemed so easy. Like why did he hit so hard? Overacting perhaps.

Overacting indeed. Because he had to. He is pretending to bash the gate. Pretending to be the hero. The one that saves. He HAS to save Chuck.

Why didn’t you save me?

Why didn’t you save me?

Why didn’t you save me?

Guilt is a funny emotion, isn’t it?

The beautiful part of this movie is not only the colors, the cinematography, but the dreading fate. Of course the viewers knew there was a twist but even up until the lighthouse scene I was holding out hope. Maybe he’s right. Maybe they drugged him. Maybe its delusions. Just maybe…

But sometimes, it’s easier to float in lies than to believe the absurdity that is the truth.

Shutter Island: In theaters now.