"Take Shelter" (2011) - Directed by Jeff Nichols, starring Michael Shannon, Jessica Chastain
Michael Shannon is, simply put, an acting god, and this is his picture start to finish, although Jessica Chastain playing another version of the loving wife she gave us in "The Tree of Life," certainly matches him scene for scene, especially in the second half of the film. In "Take Shelter," Mr. Shannon plays Curtis, a blue-collar worker who starts to have an increasingly bizarre series of disturbing dreams that to him seem real. Visions of approaching storms, destructive winds and viscous yellow rain like motor oil. Swarming clouds (murmurations) of starlings. Visions of attacks by unseen assailants who have apparently come to steal his little deaf-mute daughter. Dreams that his wife and dog have turned on him with homicidal intent. To him they seem real and with their cumulative effect, he loses sleep, his health deteriorates, and his life begins to unravel. He decides to renovate a old storm cellar, expanding it with plumbing and lighting and laying in supplies and survival gear. The cost of this in time and money begins to send both him and his wife over the edge. But he feels a compulsion to build a place of safety... it becomes an obsession.
The film is a puzzle because we are never sure if Curtis's dreams are prophetic. Is this film meant to be a reflection of our own uncertain times? Is Curtis a prophet? Or is he simply mad? Perhaps something terrible IS coming. We learn that schizophrenia runs in the family (his mother is institutionalized) and that alone could explain what is happening to him. His knowledge of that condition adds to his stress.
The visual look of this film is amazing. Anyone who has ever stared in awe at an approaching storm will find that element of hypnotic fascination in this disturbing film. Then there is the claustrophobic dimly lighted interior of the bunker in scenes that give us a feeling of being closed in and shut off. The carefully plotted build-up in tension is like a screw tightening slowly. And the ending of the film might leave you staring at the screen with a lingering unease. Did a movie ever give you nightmares? Did you ever have an ineffable feeling that things are about to get much, much worse. After viewing this little mind-blower, you may want to "take shelter" yourself.
Highly recommended for those who love the mysterious and the offbeat.
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