In a film industry littered with the corpses of less significant psychological thrillers, "Take Shelter" stands tall for its incredible ability to create. It is a rare commodity — a film that relies on a well-told story with great structure in order to raise the stakes. "Take Shelter" builds great tension with the audience and really draws them in, making you care about it's characters
"Take Shelter" is the story of Curtis (Michael Shannon), a construction worker from a small town in Ohio where he lives with his wife, Samantha (Jessica Chastain) and his deaf daughter Hannah (Tova Stewart). Curtis is an earnest, hardworking man. He obviously loves his wife and daughter very much and is good to his friends.
Despite his content life, Curtis begins have extremely vivid nightmares of a strange storm on the horizon that causes the people around Curtis to react violently, often attacking him. Disturbed by these visions, Curtis begins to behave strangely, trying to prepare for the storm he keeps seeing. Eventually Curtis' nightly visions become his daily reality, and he begins to see these terrible storms in his waking hours. The problem is that no one else shares Curtis' visions, leaving us to wonder: is our protagonist prophetic? Or is he going insane?
There's really not enough that can be said about the atmosphere of the film. To match the fear and uncertainty of Curtis, the film is constantly hinting that something horrible is around the corner. There really is no point during the film where we feel safe. The structure of the plot constantly has us questioning what is reality and what is a dream. It almost doesn't matter though, as both are equally troubling to Curtis.
This film's theme is timely. In a world where there seems to be a new apocalypse around every corner — or at least one predicated in every segment on the nightly news — is there a better film than one that deals with interpretations of disaster? Director Jeff Nichols has a very good grasp of the constant state of dread that fills the lives of people living in the world today. By using a typical American family for his characters, Nichols is able to make a poignant portrait of how the terrors of the world affect the lives of those trying to get by.
Shannon is absolutely sublime in his performance as Curtis. His facial expressions manage to capture the true emotion in every scene he's in. Without Shannon having to use any dialogue, we can always tell how Curtis is feeling, or even how we, the audience, are supposed to be reacting to what's on screen. The dialogue that he does deliver is perfect. His climax, where he delivers an angry prophecy to a collection of neighbors at an oyster fry, is probably the best-performed scene in film this year.
Chastain is also superb in the film. She has had a real coming-out party this year with her performances in "The Help," "Tree of Life," "The Debt" and now "Take Shelter." Here, she gives a convincing performance of a wife trying to help her husband, despite the fact he may be very mentally ill. Throughout the movie, I was very impressed by how believable Chastain's reactions were to Curtis' growing mental instability. There was never a point where I thought she reacted too strongly or too meek. Chastain always seemed to find the right note for her character to make the story believable.
There aren't any other performances to really speak for outside of Shannon and Chastain. One of the weakest points of the film is the lack of any development of supporting characters. Shea Whigham, as Curtis' friend Dewart, does as much as he can with limited screen time, giving us some conflict with Curtis outside of the family. Outside of him, however, no other character is on-screen for even five minutes.
Overall, I thought "Take Shelter" was a riveting film about the fears every day people experience. Shannon and Chastain give terrific performances as Jeff Nichols crafts a very intriguing story. While the film lacks in supporting characters, and some of the scenes are a little long, overall "Take Shelter" is one of the best films this year.
To Curtis, the growing storms of the world appear terrifying, and his paranoia threatens to overwhelm him. Today, who can blame him? There always seems to be a storm on the horizon, and it feels like only a matter of time before it comes to wreck horrible destruction upon us all.
"Take Shelter" receives an 8.5/10
Read More
Three Air Jam teams take home the win
October 12, 2012Nineteen teams shimmied, shook and flipped for a sold out John R. Emens Auditorium on Thursday night during the 25th annual Air Jam.
Bill Clinton Speaks at North Central High School
October 12, 2012Former President's Speech Could Have Effect on State Senate Race
