(Thumbnail image: Paramount Pictures)
Paramount Pictures' new psychological thriller, "Shutter Island", was No. 1 at the box office for its second straight weekend. But what makes this movie both popular and controversial? A surprise ending that has everyone talking.
"Near the end where they started blurring the boundaries of what was real and what wasn't real and you weren't sure and your heart's just pounding and you just don't even know what's going to happen."
"I didn't expect what they did." "So it was a shocker?" "Yeah."
"I thought something was going to happen and then the exact opposite happens."
"Come Oscar season, it will be here." (Reelz Channel)
Columbia, South Carolina's CBS-affiliate says that while the unclear ending may anger or disappoint some viewers, it leaves something to the imagination.
"An ambiguous ending keeps different theories alive long after this movie is over. While you may not love it, you'll want to discuss it. In that respect, I guess I'm biased, because I always enjoy discussing movies...especially when they're constructed by Martin Scorsese." "We were just saying off air, that it's hard to surprise people, it's tough, it's a tough thing to do."
But not everyone shares these sentiments, and many movie critics are calling the twist "a cheap trick." Brand X, an online movie review website, says Scorsese's film tries too hard to be a thriller like no other, making the ending obnoxious and confusing.
"The only reason we can't figure out the mystery's solution halfway through the film is that so much of the buildup seems to contradict it. Even if you guess correctly, you'll quickly reject your idea on the grounds of utter implausibility -- the very implausibility that the movie labors to explain away at the end."
"Shutter Island's" star Leonardo DiCaprio tells ABC's Nightline that the cast did its best to make an entertaining film, and the rest is up to the audience.
"You only can go in there with the best intentions, give everything you possibly can, try your best to make the best possible movie you can. And then it's like giving birth, you give it out to the world and it will either become a juvenile delinquent or the president of the United States."
Will all the hype about "Shutter Island's" ending die down, or will curiosity give the film another successful week?
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