Review: Take Shelter

Michael Shannon stars as an Ohio construction worker with a loving wife (Jessica Chastain) and a hearing-impaired daughter (Tova Stewart). Shannon starts being disturbed by visions or dreams of a giant apocalyptic storm, and subsequently becomes obsessed with building a storm shelter to protect his family. To do this, he takes out a loan, which concerns his wife, and he borrows tools from work, which concerns his boss and co worker/best friend (the latter played by Shea Whigham). However, always troubling Shannon is the possibility that this is all just in his mind. He is aware that he has a history of mental illness in his family, with his paranoid schizophrenic mother (Kathy Baker), and so he attempts to seek psychiatric help. Meanwhile, his erratic behaviour is unsettling his family, friends, and colleagues. Katy Mixon plays Chastain’s best friend, Lisa Gay Hamilton plays a counsellor.

 

Although a trifle predictable, this film from writer-director Jeff Nichols (directing just his second film) is unique, fascinating, and ultimately a very moving and unusual experience. It’s one of the best films of 2011, easily, and the uneven (but gifted) Michael Shannon gives one of his best performances to date, once again reminding me of other idiosyncratic, darkly mysterious actors as Christopher Walken, Michael Keaton, and Jeff Goldblum. He’s a tough actor to rein in, but when given the right role (and no, his Oscar-nominated turn in “Revolutionary Road” was not the right role) and a strong director, he’s superb (40s and 50s film noir would’ve done great things for him, I believe). He went way overboard in “Revolutionary Road”, but although one scene here calls for a giant outburst, he handles that scene as well as anyone could (it’s pretty startling), and is nicely restrained the rest of the film. Is it just me, or does he seem to struggle to get his words out, like he’s in enormous physical pain trying to speak? Just an observation. It’s a moving performance, because you are afraid for him rather than of him. You sense an innate decency in him, and all of his visions/motives/delusions are to do with saving his family from a threat. But what if he really is losing his mind and the threat is actually him?

 

Although I don’t understand why Jessica Chastain feels the need to turn up in every movie made these days (other actresses must hate her passionately), I was glad to see Kathy Baker, as always. She’s an extremely underrated actress, and I reckon she looks younger here than she has in some of her other films in recent years. It’s an interesting role for her and she handles it with her usual considerable talent.

 

With elements of “Signs”, “Repulsion”, and “Frailty” (not to mention the most oppressive weather and atmosphere since Peter Weir’s “The Last Wave”, this is a slow-burner, but a quietly disturbing film. I found myself being quite upset by some of it, especially some of the rather scary dialogue, but also the seeming normality and realism of the rural setting and characters helps in making it just that much more unsettling. Some of it could’ve been really silly in less assured hands.

 

The ending is problematic, however. I believe I understood it but it’s actually even more open to interpretation than I believe Nichols had intended (And I’ve read that he indeed intended an open ending). ***** SPOILER WARNING ***** Just because Chastain is seeing what Shannon is seeing, doesn’t mean he’s not simply imagining her seeing what he is seeing. Don’t get me wrong, I think the storm is real. Why else would Nichols include the previous false alarm? It had to be real (whether it’s a huge storm and whether they survive or not is up to the viewer), but because Shannon has these visions and also a family history with schizophrenia, one can never be truly sure. Even though this would be his first delusion to focus on someone else’s POV, how do we know this isn’t his delusional mind trying to justify its delusional self as being real? Perhaps this is the open-endedness Nichols is talking about, but I doubt it. I think he just fucked it up a bit. ***** END SPOILER ***** Still, this is a fascinating, well-acted, atmospheric, disturbing, and ultimately powerful film. I never could work out, though, why Shannon and Chastain insisted on whispering around their sleeping child. She’s fucking deaf you idiots! Seriously, that just pissed me off. Anyway, a terrific film well worth seeking out, even if the finale frustrates. It’ll certainly have you talking.

 

Rating: B