Michael Shannon was a Johnny Four-Pack blue collar worker who thought he had it all, until one day - he started having visions! And now Shannon's about to find out, living a life of fearful nightmares, ain't as easy as it looks!
Set in a small town in Ohio, Michael Shannon plays Curtis LaForche, a working joe who is married to the frankly beautiful Samantha (Jessica Chastain) and has a daughter called Hannah, who is deaf. Life seems reasonably fair to Curtis and Samantha. He has a paying steady job, and their workplace insurance is coming through on a cochlear implant for their kid. Curtis is a quiet, self-sufficient guy. He has a few friends, but is far from outgoing. He considers life to be good.
But one night he has a terrible nightmare. A dream of storms and rain and strange violence. And he awakes with a feeling. Something's coming. And as time goes on, the feeling gets stronger, and the dreams begin to leak into his waking hours. He reckons he has to protect his family, but are these horrifying apocalyptic dreams the beginnings of a mental illness, or a true gut feeling of something awful on the way? And how can he face his family and friends and colleagues with this awful feeling within him? How much is he willing to sacrifice on a vision?
This is about how life can fall apart. As one of Curtis's friends says, "You take your eye off the ball in this economy, you're screwed." Unable to communicate, Curtis tries to steer the course he feels best through his private hell, with disasterous consequences. Take Shelter perfectly blends in the current angst gripping the world. The seemingly inescapable economic downtown. The feelings of powerlessness. Enviornmental destruction. The recent catastrophic storms that have afflicted America in the last six years. There's something of the Noah about Curtis, but there's nothing concrete about his prophecy. This is far from a religious film, indeed, Curtis is specifically pointed out as not being a church-goer. The film is largely ambiguous, and simultaneously works as an extended Twilight Zone episode and as a family drama about mental illness. It's powered by a sparse, direct script and great performances from both Shannon and Chastain. Michael Shannon seems often agonisingly torn up, but unable to even allow his torment to show properly on his face. His work is Oscar worthy. Chastain works wonders with a difficult role, making a character who by very virtue of being isolated from Curtis's struggle could have ended up unsympathetic. She's a casualty too. It also helps that she's utterly beautiful in an unconventional way. The direction is direct, unshowy, and concentrates on Curtis and his surroundings, rarely straying from the man's direct line of sight, constantly grounding him in the community and home and the family he's trying to protect.
The visions he has are also impressively threatening whilst being nicely understated. Whilst one close encounter with birds doesn't entirely convince in the effects department, most of the shots do, and there's some spectacular visions of menacing wall clouds slowly rotating and vague figures glimpsed in torrential downpour. One scene in particular is fairly breathtaking, even though you don't really see anything. It's all in suggestion. Meanwhile the atonal, sparse soundtrack amps up the tension with a spooky eight note windchime theme that will keep running through your head.
And it is a tense film, very tense. The ending almost comes as a relief. It's not just the tension of a mystery, but the tension Shannon carries as Curtis, and the threat of violence upon his family and his mind. He's a man ready to snap. A powerful, big man who cannot articulate and has a danger welling up inside him. It's not a happy film, safe to say, though there is warmth and occassional humour. To be honest, I'm not completely sold on the ending. It's memorable, but I think it's not quite right. Either less needed to be said with the choice it made, or more. It strikes me as unsure. This however doesn't detract from a very good film with great performances, and a perfect evocation of the sense of unease that people are going through in these strange times. Take Shelter shows how we are all at the mercy of something - either in the mind or out there from the skies. It doesn't matter which, both are devestating.
Four out of Five
(Take Shelter is out now.)
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thanks Pete!