Directed by:
Jeff NicholsScreenplay:
Jeff NicholsCinematography:
Adam StoneComposer:
David WingoCast:
Michael Shannon, Jessica Chastain, Tova Stewart, Shea Whigham, Katy Mixon, Ray McKinnon, Kathy Baker, LisaGay Hamilton, Joe Zamora, Stuart Greer (more)VOD (3)
Plots(1)
Curtis LaForche lives in a small Ohio town with his wife Samantha and six-year-old daughter Hannah, who is deaf. Curtis makes a modest living as a crew chief for a sand-mining company. Samantha is a stay-at-home mother and part-time seamstress who supplements their income by selling handmade wares at the flea market each weekend. Money is tight, and navigating Hannah’s healthcare and special needs education is a constant struggle. Despite that, Curtis and Samantha are very much in love and their family is a happy one. Then Curtis begins having terrifying dreams about an encroaching, apocalyptic storm. He chooses to keep the disturbance to himself, channeling his anxiety into the obsessive building of a storm shelter in their backyard. His seemingly inexplicable behavior concerns and confounds Samantha, and provokes intolerance among co-workers, friends and neighbors. But the resulting strain on his marriage and tension within the community doesn’t compare to Curtis’ private fear of what his dreams may truly signify. Faced with the proposition that his disturbing visions signal disaster of one kind or another, Curtis confides in Samantha, testing the power of their bond against the highest possible stakes. (official distributor synopsis)
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Reviews (8)
A very disturbing drama about an emerging mental disorder (or maybe not exactly, but let’s not anticipate) and the subsequent disintegration of the hitherto quiet family life. Michael Shannon is stunning in the lead role, and Jessica Chastain comes close. Hats off, especially for the character Jessica plays, who, even under the stress of tough life challenges, stays strong and stands patiently and lovingly by her husband. Some of the dream sequences are not far from the realm of horror, and Shannon’s maddened state is very uncomfortable to watch. The whole thing inevitably foreshadows a really unhappy final scene, and makes for a two-hour instant depression treat. [KVIFF 2018]
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Excellent Sundance fodder that tries to convince the viewer all along with pretty clear direction that the movie isn't so bad and that it will make up for all the hero's setbacks with the final redemption. Which does in fact occur, but it convinces us that Take Shelter is ultimately a heavy bastard anyway. Right from the start, if you look at Michael Shannon (the brilliant Michael Shannon, by the way), a string gets plucked in your diaphragm that the film keeps humming very unpleasantly for two hours. For every minute of the film where someone smiles, or a hint of hope shines in the distance (learning with a deaf-mute daughter, for example) you are incredibly grateful, because that sense of that impending doom is always just around the corner. PS: *SPOILER ALERT* – I accept the argument about the set and spiked ending, which might leave you gaping at the end credits like a moron (I had a very similar experience with Trier's Melancholia), yet forces you to shift gears a bit from a story thus far about the progression of a rising mental illness.
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I didn’t know anything about this film beforehand (other than an outline of the premise and the good reviews), and I would recommend you the same, so stop reading, now :). Very unique take of the sub-genre of “the protagonist is (maybe) crazy”. Michael Shannon is married to Jessica Chastain (by the way, great performances by both) and has a deaf-mute daughter, he also has apocalyptic visions about a super storm that doesn’t bring anything good. Jeff Nichols (director and screenwriter) chose an interesting approach, leaving the main character to doubt himself. But crazy people usually don’t think they are crazy, which raises a fairly legitimate fear in the viewer that something is really going happen in the end. But don’t expect a catastrophe movie, Take Shelter is mostly an oppressive conversational drama spiced up with an almost horror scene here and there. In the final fifteen minutes I felt a (un)pleasant chill several times, largely due to the excellent soundtrack. The very last scene can debated at length (how much to take it literally or what it symbolises), which also deserves praise. Very satisfied, but this is not something for everyone. 9/10
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This got to me. A game with the viewer on the border of panic, paranoia, stealthiness and self-flagellation. A motif of uncertainty built by an unreliable narrator and layered hints, so that one is trapped somewhere between reading the film as a social-family drama about erupting schizophrenia and a chilling apocalyptic parable about a decaying world. The two planes are perfectly connected, and thanks to this, the conclusion (however on the edge) feels appropriately mystical. Elegantly, without awkwardness and with ease, Nichols filmed something that M. Night Shyamalan has been pathetically trying to film for years. A film about foreboding, fear, vulnerability and the end of civilization, a smooth rendition of many disaster visions and feelings of the near demise of the world as we know it. This film is a major event in both the thriller and psychological drama genres.
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The best of the American indie scene of the last few years. I love it when as a viewer I don't know what I'm in for, and when the director plays with me like a cat with a mouse. That's exactly what this film does. It's extremely atmospheric, full of paranoia and growing fear, where at the beginning you don't know if the main character or his surroundings are crazy, but thanks to your logical reasoning you gradually lean towards the more "sensible" option, only to come to a conclusion that's like a punch in the face. And Michael Shannon deserves an Oscar.
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