When you start dreaming of an apocalyptic future do you shelter your family from an unlikely, yet potential storm or from yourself? That's the question at stake in Take Shelter, a Sundance selection written and directed by Jeff Nichols. The film starts off by introducing you to Curtis (Boardwalk Empire's Michael Shannon) standing outside in heavy rainfall but when the camera cuts to a shot of his hand the rain looks closer to oil. He wakes up in a sweat. The dreams and eventually delusions continue and most curiously, instead of ending when he wakes up, Curtis feels the effects of the dreams hours later. For instance, when a dog attacks his arm in a dream he is noticeably favoring the arm the rest of the day. These dreams feel so real to him he feels the need to expand a small tornado shelter so he can protect his wife Sam (The Help's Jessica Chastain) and deaf daughter Hannah (newcomer Tova Stewart).
The center of this story is based on the love between Curtis and Sam. Even when they are upset at each other there is never a doubt in the audience's mind that they love each other. Sam realizes that just because things are tough and her husband is acting strange and initially hiding things from her doesn't mean she needs to leave him. The film wouldn't work without the commitment and love between the two leads.
Speaking of the leads, Chastain and especially Shannon are cast perfectly for this film and give great performances. The first half of the film has a lot of monologue instead of back and forth between the two characters but it never feels unnatural or forced. The emotions are raw and real. There was a reason people felt Shannon deserved a nomination and it is plainly obvious while watching the film.
The premise of this movie reminds me a lot of Bug, another Shannon film with Ashley Judd, only this time the plot wasn't nearly as contrived and the director had a much better sense of where he was going with his story. In lesser hands Take Shelter could have been an absolute disaster but instead it turned out to be one of the better films of last year. There is one scene in particular at the climax of the movie where everything just came together perfectly. The score set the mood, the love and trust built up by the actors the rest of the film was paying off in a big way, and the tension was as high as one could hope for. Overall there is very little, if anything negative to say about the movie and instead of seeing an okay film with great acting like I had expected I ended up seeing a story unfold that will stay in the front of my mind over the next few days.
A-.
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