Take Shelter-2011

Director Jeff Nichols

Starring Michael Shannon, Jessica Chastain

Scott’s Review #1,150

Reviewed June 9, 2021

Grade: B+

Michael Shannon is a great actor. Appearing mostly in supporting roles and breaking out big time in 2008’s Revolutionary Road, he gets the lead in Take Shelter (2011) and is more than up to the task of creating a great character.

The ambivalence and uncertainty his character feels are central to the film’s enjoyment.

It’s a slow burn with an unsatisfying payoff, but I mean that as a compliment.

The plot is set in a small rural town in Ohio.

Curtis LaForche (Shannon) is a working-class husband, father, and provider for his wife, Samantha (Jessica Chastain), and young daughter, Hannah.

Curtis begins to have scary apocalyptic dreams, which he keeps from his family.

He decides to build a storm shelter in his backyard, which raises Samantha’s concerns. His strange behavior creates a strain on his family. As he builds the shelter, Curtis is afraid of his dreams, or rather, afraid that they are a premonition and will come true.

Is he going crazy, or will his dreams become a devastating reality?

Curtis, Samantha, and the entire audience will ponder this note throughout the film.

An interesting add-on is that Hannah is deaf, so the way her parents embrace and accept her disability is a nice nod to the inclusiveness of people with disabilities.

Take Shelter is delightful to revisit and discuss ten years following its release.

In 2011, both Shannon and Chastain were up-and-coming stars and only barely on the cusp of A-list status, so it’s fun to see them in an independent film that showcases their acting chops.

They would go on to become big stars and showcase their talents in many other roles, so it’s fun to see them in early-career performances.

Shannon is careful not to outshine Chastain, but Curtis focuses on what is going on inside. His conflict is palpable and written all over his face in quiet scene after quiet scene after quiet scene as he gazes at the luminous skies.

He wonders what is coming next.

His dreams, hallucinations, and auditory experiences involving swarms of blackbirds are creepy and well-made on a small budget. A clue is when it is revealed that Curtis’s mother had paranoid schizophrenia at roughly the same age that Curtis is.

A drained Curtis seeks counseling but still cannot shake his feelings of impending doom. I felt completely empathetic to his plight and never saw Curtis as crazy or out of control.

He possesses controlled restraint.

Director Jeff Nichols does an exceptional job of making the film largely quiet and peaceful, with a gnawing, foreboding dread, as if the expected apocalypse might come upon the lonely town.

Take Shelter is the debut by Nichols, who followed up this gem with two other low-key but critically acclaimed films, Mud (2012) and Loving (2016).

He knows how to get to the core of his characters’ deepest thoughts and feelings.

He wrote each of these works and received praise for fine writing.

The film is about the relationship between the characters and the possibility that Curtis is going insane. I’m not sure Take Shelter provides a neatly wrapped conclusion, but boy is it an edge-of-your-seat thrill.

And why does it need to?

Shannon’s best scene occurs at a Lions Club community event. With most of the town gathered in the hall for a delicious dinner of potluck dishes, things go bad when Curtis loses his temper and verbally berates the townspeople. He warns them that they are unprepared for the doom.

They look at him as if he belongs in a padded cell, and Shannon’s explosion is frightening and frighteningly good.

As good as Shannon is, Chastain must not be dismissed. She barely holds it together as a woman with a special needs child and an unbalanced husband. When they lose their health insurance, she nearly comes apart at the seams.

I love the ending because Nichols leaves the truth of reality a mystery to the audience. This may dissatisfy some, but I thought it’s how Take Shelter should be.

Unclear, just like the thoughts of its main character.

Take Shelter (2011) succeeds with a powerhouse performance by its star Michael Shannon, wonderful direction, and a refined imbalance.

The quiet and thoughtful cinema fan will be most endeared to this film.