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Take Shelter



Review by Anthony Morris

take shelter

Take Shelter

take shelter

Curtis (Michael Shannon) is a hard-working family man in rural America who, out of nowhere, starts having dreams of a coming disaster.

Storm clouds brew, tornadoes touch down, and a chemical rain that could be petrol or blood begins to fall.

If they were just regular dreams perhaps he could cope with that, but they quickly mount in intensity : when he dreams his dog attacks him, he can no longer bear to have it around.

And these dreams leach into his waking life too. "Does anybody see that?" he says as a lightning storm flashes on the horizon.

Soon he's vastly expanding the family's tornado shelter in the back yard, even as he reads books on mental illness at the local library. And all the while his wife Samantha (Jessica Chastain) watches, increasingly concerned at what his increasingly erratic behaviour means for her and their deaf daughter.

Undeniably effective and skilfully constructed, Take Shelter is a hard film to judge in some ways because what it sets out to do – and achieves admirably – is to leave you feeling like you've had a two hour anxiety attack.

Horrendously tense – the dream sequences are as close to actual nightmares as anything put on film, and their effect on Shannon (who gives a gripping and completely convincing performance as a man barely holding on) is devastating – this is a film where a happy ending would presumably involve Curtis not losing his mind.

That is, the end of the world.

Take Shelter isn't a film you'll forget in a hurry, even if the experience of watching it isn't exactly what you’d call enjoyable : oppressive and harrowing, this all-too-real look at the progression and effects of mental illness (even if the questions of whether Curtis is actually ill is an open one), is easily one of the most powerful films of the year.

4.5 out of 5

Take Shelter
Australian release: 13th October, 2011
Official Site: Take Shelter
Cast: Michael Shannon, Jessica Chastain and Shea Whigham
Director: Jeff Nichols



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