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Saturday, October 29, 2011

MOVIE REVIEW
Take Shelter
When The End Is Closer Than The Imagination Suggests

End times: Michael Shannon as Curtis, with Jessica Chastain and Tova Stewart behind him, in darkness.  Sony Pictures Classics
  
by Omar P.L. Moore/PopcornReel.com        Follow popcornreel on Twitter FOLLOW                                           
Saturday, October 29, 2011
Perhaps Harold Camping could learn a little something from Curtis, the tormented lead character in Jeff Nichols' psychological thriller "Take Shelter", now playing in several U.S. cities.  Mr. Camping has in many circles become the boy who cried wolf as he's now at least twice predicted (wrongly) the date that the world would end. 

Curtis (Michael Shannon) is smarter.  He doesn't make a specific prediction, but his private torment reveals his deepest fears: that the end times are here, and all those around him including his wife Samantha (Jessica Chastain) and deaf daughter (Tova Stewart) don't know it.  They don't see what Curtis sees or imagines: orange rain, ominous bodies, faceless souls, quasi-demonic possessors.  Curtis, a builder low on money, seeks professional help.  No one, it seems, has the answers.  A home-made shelter from what appears an impending storm in the countryside of Curtis's Anytown, America residence may be a last resort for safety.

Mr. Nichols writes and directs this crisp, spare atmospheric chiller that relies on strong performances from Mr. Shannon and Ms. Chastain.  Often haunting and eerie, "Take Shelter" could be an allegory about the eroding American middle class losing its way amidst an awful economy, or about a man losing his grip on reality, or about the destabilization of a family thanks to the wrath of a decaying environment and some serious climate change. 

No matter how one views this impressive and compelling film, what Mr. Nichols achieves is an all-around sense of truncated perspective, whether via Curtis's inability to communicate with Samantha, or through the sign language shorthand Curtis exchanges with his daughter Hannah, or in the visions Curtis experiences.  (By the way, are those just "visions", or truly something more?)  "Take Shelter" is compulsive viewing, and it resonates unmistakably in the heart and mind.  The deliberate pace of the film is a throwback to old-fashioned horror that relies on tension, quick blips of terrifying images and one or two thoroughly unhinging moments. 

Almost 20 years ago Todd Haynes directed "Safe", with Julianne Moore as a suburbanite who is agoraphobic and hypersensitive to chemicals and other everyday incidentals.  "Take Shelter" utilizes a similar theme in Mr. Haynes' film -- that of natural habitat becoming horrific, toxic nightmare -- although Mr. Nichols' intimate film looks more at the disintegration of the natural world through the eyes of a man isolated by his fears than at that world being a cancerous, noxious place to live in.  (The forthcoming drama "Melancholia" also addresses the end of the world possibilities, as have numerous other films this year about apocalyptic visions, including "Bellflower".)

"Take Shelter" relies on visual effects that, while obvious, are quite frightening, especially after being contrasted with glimpses of Mr. Shannon's visceral, intense work as Curtis.  I was jarred and on edge when watching "Take Shelter", a film that matter-of-factly plays out its elements of suspense and foreboding, as well as its carefully structured assortment of events with purpose, discretion and a measure of credibility.  ("The Tree", a film released earlier this year, accomplished some of the same ethereal feeling and sense of supernatural or spiritual surrounding that "Take Shelter" so powerfully conveys.)

It's worth noting that Ms. Chastain is especially good as a woman just trying to keep a home together and a family on the same page.  In a busy year onscreen Ms. Chastain's grounded, confident performance in "Take Shelter" ranks a close second to her excellent work in "The Tree Of Life".  Interestingly, both films feature a swarm of birds in the sky, one for mysterious reasons, the other for more ominous ones.

Harold Camping may try and try but Jeff Nichols gets the certitude and the gravity of "Take Shelter" so right in every way, come Hell, hysterics or high water.
With: Shea Whigham, Katy Mixon, Lisagay Hamilton, Natasha Randall, Ron Kennard, Scott Knisley, Robert Longstreet.

"Take Shelter" is rated R by the Motion Picture Association Of America for some language.  The film is creepy, and there's at least one scene involving blood, albeit discreet.  The film's running time is two hours.
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