Take Shelter review

The story of Take Shelter’s revolves around a family suffering from a crippling financial crisis and an uncertain future, a situation that man will sympathise given the current economic recession that is spreading across the globe. Curtis, played by Michael Shannon, works as a driller, his wife is Samantha,(Jessica Chastain) and his young daughter Hannah, who is deaf.

Money is very tight, but through Curtis’ work insurance they have finally managed to get together the funds they need to get Hannah a life changing operation to insert implants. Thing for Curtis, however, are far from well. He is suffering from horrendous, apocalyptic nightmares about a huge storm that he starts to believe is coming to tear his world apart.

He really starts to worry when these dreams start to spill over into reality, especially as as his  family has  a history of mental illness, and his mother (Cathy Baker) was diagnosed in her thirties with schizophrenia. Curtis is also now in his mid thirties, and when he starts to believe that he too has mental problems he seeks the help of a professional.

There is a part of him, however, that also believes these dreams are visions; portents of an upcoming environmental calamity, so to protect his family he starts building a storm shelter. Take Shelter does something very rare in film making today; it resonates on such a level that it really hits that raw nerve you don’t realise is there until it is assaulted. This film makes for incredibly powerful and disquieting viewing.

Plaudits have to be paid to Shannon and Chastain, whose exemplary performances give this film its life, and lesser players could have dragged it down to a far inferior film than this excellent effort. These actors certainly made the director’s, Jeff Nichols,life easy and he has an awful lot to thank them for. When you have seen Chastain’s performance in particular don’t be surprised if you find yourself seeking out her other work.

You could even go so far as to say that Chastain is the heart of Take Shelter, and her portrayal of Samantha would have been a helluva lot harder to play than the role of Curtis. That is not meant to demean Shannon’s performance in any way however, as he takes on the lead role with great aplomb and his magnetic performance should result in many nominations in the upcoming awards season.

The tension throughout Take Shelter starts building from the very first scene and is expertly sustained culminating in something that is both moving and terrifying. Watching the family disintegrate over the course of the film is a devastating ordeal to watch.

You ask yourself whether Curtis is suffering from a genetic curse or if his dreams that haunt him whilst both asleep and waking are indeed visions or a metaphor for the growing anxieties that could have triggered his psychosis.

Watching  this little family being ripped apart will, at times, have you hoping that the storm rending the environmental disaster really is on its way. This is, again, due toShannonmaking Curtis such a  likeable and developed character that you simply don’t want him suffering any kind of mental collapse.

Whilst in the broadest sense, you could argue that Take Shelter isn’t actually a horror film, the internal horror it projects is far scarier than any knife wielding zombie/maniac/vampire. The  definition of horror covers many things, and in the case of the brilliant, disturbing and thought provoking Take Shelter, it means terror for all involved, including the audience.

This review is not going to stray into spoiler territory and while its rivetting viewing, it is several minutes too long, as the perfect moment to wind it up passes by and the last piece is totally unnecessary. This small imperfection aside, Take Shelter is the best thing  to hit a cinema screen in a long, long time.