Take Shelter

How do you handle visions about the future that are so real that you're sure they're going to happen? I suppose that's what it's like to be a prophet, but being a prophet in 2011 is a quick way to get you committed.

Curtis LaForche (Michael Shannon) was having incredibly vivid visions; so much so he began to build an underground shelter much like Noah began building his arc. Curtis envisioned a biblical storm that would decimate all in its path. The problem is no one else believed him, and there is that small thing about his mom (Kathy Baker) being schizophrenic. Perhaps it was hereditary.

"Take Shelter" moves slow and methodically. It's a bit hard to be patient with the movie as Curtis' life crumbles around him and we're waiting to see if his visions are correct or not. Curtis is such a good guy you don't want him to be going crazy, but you have to prepare for that possibility. To add to his complications he has a deaf daughter (Tova Stewart) in need of an expensive surgery. Curtis paints himself into an untenable position: his vision must come true or he must come to grips with his mental illness.

I hear it so much now. Our national discourse is rich with portent. "It's going to get worse before it gets better", "Something horrible is coming, you'll see", "Soon there will be riots". I'm told these things at conventions and while talking to my neighbors and at breakfast with my mother's old friends. Now Jeff Nichols takes an exhausted phrase in storytelling, ("There's a storm coming") and crafts out of it the movie of the moment. A dark, symbolic mapping of the last five years of the middle-class American experience that's bursting at the mental and financial seams. I have yet to see a finer artistic expression of the current existential crises we face. Michael Shannon is the Noah of our hour, plagued with calamitous visions and barely bearing up under the weight of constant anxiety. In fact, the whole endeavor is buried in quiet distress and prescience. And when the movie finally finds the heart to redeem it's long suffering protagonist, it is through the worst of all possible outcomes. Essential viewing for our times.

It seems that art films come in all shapes and sizes these days. If you look hard enough you'll find small independent art films within any genre. Take Shelter is a film you will find amongst dramatic thrillers, and it is definitely one you should seek out. It stars Michael Shannon as Curtis, a middle class family man working on the pipeline in Ohio. He leads a capable life where he must cope with his monetary issues as well as his deaf daughter. But he makes the most of it and lives a life of relative ease and compassion for his family. However, things become complicated when he starts seeing apocalyptic visions of a terrible storm he believes is on its way. The dreams and visions make his life very difficult and it becomes increasingly more stressful. Curtis must fight a battle within himself as he tries to figure out if these visions are meaningful or if he is just going crazy, as well as with his family and friends who become more disconnected from him as his sanity seems to deteriorate before their eyes. Take Shelter is a harrowing, dramatic, and slow building film that will surely amaze you once it is all over.

Take Shelter is a film that moves so slowly and builds so dramatically that one begins to wonder if we're every getting to the end. It's an incredibly quiet and sincerely somber film. We spend almost the entire movie honing in on Michael Shannon's powerful facial expressions and the deep thought going into the story. It progresses so slowly with a build up that pushes its way through molasses.

I'll admit that I was getting worried about this film not being as good as I expected it to be. I was afraid it might not live up to my expectations and that the payoff wouldn't be worth the crawling build up. But one you reach the end you will be incredibly satisfied. The payoff is incredible. I couldn't have asked for a better ending. It could not have been executed more precisely. It plays to something bigger than what you could have ever expected from this fantastic film. Just as my mind began to slip away from Take Shelter it ended with such a deep and deafening bang that my eyes flew open to realize the incredible film I had just sat through.

Take Shelter might not look like much at first, but it turns out to be a tremendous film. It's smart, engaging, fascinating, and brutally sincere. This is a must see film for 2011. Depending on your attention span you may want to give up about an hour and a half in, but if you stick around for the end you will be very satisfied. I guarantee it.

When done right, few tales are more riveting than a person's descent into madness. Alfred Hitchcock proved this time and time again and Jeff Nichols reinforces it in "Take Shelter," a film likely to have been lauded by the master of suspense himself. Anchored by the performances of Michael Shannon and Jessica Chastain, "Shelter" broods and festers but ultimately thrives on the brink between buildup and utter chaos.

Shannon, far from a household name but a favorite of cinephiles since his head-turning supporting role in "Revolutionary Road," stars as Curtis, a construction worker and father living in a rural town with his wife, Sam (Chastain), and their young daughter, Hannah (Tova Stewart). Their daughter has developed extreme hearing loss and Curtis' job provides them the benefits necessary to afford cochlear implants, but Curtis' recent slew of horrifically real nightmares seems to be the real issue here.

In his dreams, Curtis experiences premonitions of a near-apocalyptic storm that includes odd bird flight formations, motor-oil-like rain, and twisters, and appears to make everyone that shows up in his dreams eerily violent from his dog to complete strangers. The resulting paranoia and occasional physical side affects leads Curtis to seek medical attention, but also to start renovating the storm cellar in his backyard should his visions come true.

The question of whether Curtis is a prophet of sorts or just mentally disturbed drives the film — not much else does. Nichols tells this story largely through a series of character snapshots depicting Curtis riding the ups and downs caused by these nightmares. A few key moments boil the story to a point, namely a riveting scene when Curtis loses it a social luncheon, but the pensive script withholds from us straight through the end like a well-trained indie film.

As we go deeper and deeper with Curtis — and eventually Samantha and Curtis' best friend/co-worker Dewart (Shea Whigham) — we do learn some key details about Curtis' medical history that shed light on the situation, but even in the midst of fact, Nichols never gives us the satisfaction of arriving at any concrete conclusion about his predicament.

With the weight of an immensely introverted character dealing with a mental struggle placed squarely on his shoulders, Shannon proves why you'll only see him with more and more frequency in the future. He makes sure we care about what happens to Curtis, but beyond that he slips back and forth between deserving sympathy and deserving skepticism. He is not simply some Jobian character to whom bad things are happening, and this makes his challenge all the more challenging for the viewer. Credit as well to Nichols for crafting a protagonist far from the norm.

The winner of 2011′s most ubiquitous actress award, Chastain, gets the more alpha-type role instead. She's the good-hearted, open and loving type driven entirely by logic and unafraid of confrontation. Many will identify more with Samantha as a result, which adds a layer of complexity to the film to say the least.

"Take Shelter" offers compelling character-driven suspense, though at times it will try your patience. If you can chalk that up to quintessential indie filmmaking, then by all means do and enjoy this complex and challenging character portrait all the more for it. However, the real thrill of this type of film is that at any moment the bottom might drop out on the entire story (aka the $%&+ might hit the proverbial tornado); the difference between liking that and loving it is accepting when it doesn't.

~Steven C

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This is my first review, I felt compelled to write it due to this absolutely amazing and thought provoking movie. For me it's a work of art, from the acting to the dialogue to the cinematography but more importantly the subject matter. I have dealt with issues in my own family that relate to this movie so it really hit a raw nerve with me. It actually opened my eyes and mind to my own past.

Why this movie has gone under the radar in terms of awards baffles me!? The acting is something I've never seen before and I've watched a lot of movies in my time. It was so real, all the actors were brilliant but Michael Shannon who plays Curtis and Jessica Chastain who plays Sam were outstandingly good. Some of their scenes together had me in tears. The little girl who played their daughter was brilliant to, so believable.

You really must see this movie, I'd go as far as saying it's the best movie I've seen for years. Jeff Nichols has an amazing mind! All I can say is WOW!