As you've already figured out I LOVE controversial movies... Even though when you're going to the cinema you have to face the fact that there might be some non-thinking, very irritating people who find it a good idea to discuss the movie right where they are, laugh or even scream in the room, without giving a damn about the others. Anyway, you have to take your chances...
Back to the subject, when I tried to discuss Shutter Island with my friends (back at home..), I got the same inexplicable and surprising feeling that there was no point of concertation. It was like we've watched a completely different movie! Again I'm going to describe my point of view. The "Apple of discord" of course, was whether Teddy Daniels (Leonardo Di Caprio) was imagining the whole story or he was a victim of some kind of conspiracy against him.
I think that the key to that solution is what Teddy says to his doctor at the last scene of the movie. He says: " Which would be worse, to live as a monster or to die as a good man?" So far everything is messed up, but I think this quote explains everything. Teddy had really done all those things and he remembered the whole picture finally, after his denial to do so, because of the traumatic effect the past drilled on him. He felt responsible so he tried to misrepresent all the memories in his head so as to feel a little better. The process his doctor have put him into succeeded, so Teddy remembered everything. He couldn't stand it though, so he chose lobotomy. In this way, the monster he thought he hid inside him would die, so he could "live", if you can describe it as "life" this kind of situation, without remorses, without thinking at all. He would have been atoned.
