A Hit of Deja Vu

So, tonight I rented from the REDBOX, which is probably one of the best inventions ever. If you don't know, it's a DVD rental vending machine at most local grocery stores, where you can rent new dvds for $1 every night (via payment to a credit card). You can even check what each particular redbox has in stock before you go (take that Blockbuster). I love it, and might just think it's better than NetFlix (yea, so I am actually getting commission from REDBOX for this, but who cares, right?)

ANYHOW, that was not what I wanted to write about. What I really wanted to talk about was Shutter Island. I may be one of the few people left who cares about movies who hasn't seen it, but I can now say that I have actually seen it. And it also makes me really upset with myself, as I do think I am quite a Scorsese fan (though apparently not a good one). I really enjoyed the film, but something didn't sit right with me after watching it. I thought it was a good movie, but there was just something odd about the film, which stars Leonardo DiCaprio, Mark Ruffalo (future Incredible Hulk in The Avengers) and Ben Kingsley.

It's about a U.S. marshall sent to a psychiatric hospital that just so happens to be isolated in the middle of nowhere on an island. He is there to investigate the disappearance of a patient named Rachel Solando, but as he delves into the case, things get weird (very good descriptive term, huh?) and the distinction between reality and fantasy begins to become very hard to detect. I don't want to ruin the movie for anyone who hasn't seen it, but the ending too, also SPOILER ALERT manages to be extremely ambiguous regarding the mental state of our main character.

Is DiCaprio seeing double, or are we?

This basic outline is what really got me feeling strange, like I had deja vu (and no, this was not a break in the Matrix, so please don't geek out). It was eerily familiar, like I had seen DiCaprio in something very similar to it very recently. Then, it struck me. Inception. Inception, like this film, blurs the lines of reality and fantasy and makes people question whether what they saw was actually a part of the actual storyline or just inside the mind of the lead character, which happens to be DiCaprio in both. They both also heavily feature water as both a primary part of the setting but also as a symbol of (pretty cliched, I know) each character's awakening to what is happening in the films, or, as is the case in both films, a bridge for them to discover more about the truth of reality. On top of that, each is haunted by the memory of their dead wife, and each even feels responsible for her death. Aye scamoles!

What is really strange is that I loved both films and didn't dislike them at all for the similarities (I am also biased to like Scorsese anything but I may have preferred Inception). I am sure more similarities will come to mind as I continue to think about this, but if you have seen both movies, let me know if you can think of anything or if this idea makes sense to you! I'll add any additional thoughts below this post and include comments from you about what you might find similar between the two.

NOTE: Obviously, I don't think one film copied the other in any way. I just think it is such a weird (there's that word again) coincidence that they share so many qualities.

I said good day, sir!
-E