Take Shelter
Written and Directed
By: Jeff Nichols
Starring: Michael
Shannon, Jessica Chastain, and Tova Stewart
Director of Photography: Adam Stone, Editor: Parke Gregg,
Production Designer: Chad Keith, Original Music: David Wingo
Rated: R for some
foul language
The
wind blows in a strong direction across the plains of Ohio in Jeff Nichols’s Take Shelter. Set among the ominous
clouds, the landscapes of Mr. Nichols’s film seem to recall both the lost past
of an untamed era, but also the possible future of a return to a land of
restless violence. It only makes sense that the protagonist of Take Shelter, the good natured but
easily corrupted Curtis, sees the visions of the end not in terms of fire and
brimstone, but a storm of incontrollable magnitude. The past of both his own
life, as well as that of the world he knows, is seemingly crawling back into
his skin.
And
thus sets the stage for another great American drama with an independent and
unique vision. I missed Mr. Nichols’s first film, Shotgun Stories, which also starred Michael Shannon, but it’s an
immediate catch for me now, as Take
Shelter gives us an intimate look at one man’s battle with his own personal
demons in a setting of Americana. Bathed with gorgeous visuals on this harsh
plain, and supported by electrifying performances, Mr. Nichols had made a film
that speaks volumes about our American psyche but through a truly personal
story.
Mr.
Nichols began writing the screenplay around the time he began his own family,
and that’s what centers this story of a small-town Ohio family led by Curtis.
Curtis, lean and with piercing but loving eyes, works in a sand mine along the
plains, supporting his beautiful and loving wife Samantha (a tremendous Jessica
Chastain) and his hearing-impaired daughter Hannah. Their modest home sits
quietly along the suburban neighborhood with an abandoned storm shelter sitting
ominously in their backyard.
Curtis
seems just fine at the start of the film, but begins having visions of a storm
that will destroy his life. First come the clouds, then the motor oil rain, and
finally the lightning, tornadoes, and cannibals to threaten his daughter. At
first, Curtis finds the dreams a nuisance that won’t go away, but as they begin
to infect his waking life as well, he worries. Although aware that his mother
suffered from schizophrenia at the same age, Curtis soon believes that his
dreams are actually visions of a coming storm he must prepare for.
But
Mr. Nichols doesn’t let the intensity of the narrative make his film overly
dramatic. His film may take visual cues from Terrence Malick’s Days of Heaven, but his understanding of
human relationships is acutely aware of real drama. In a long scene in which
Curtis explains to Samantha his visions, neither Mr. Shannon nor Ms. Chastain
scream or shout, and the tears flow with reservation. As their dynamic becomes
increasingly strained due to Curtis’s growing paranoia, their relationship
changes and evolves, but continually demonstrates the power of love and trust
that define them.
And
part of the power of the paranoia comes from Mr. Shannon, who gives one of his
best performances to date. Although he’s played so called crazy types in films
like Bug and Revolutionary Road, but with Mr. Nichols behind the camera, the
actor restrains himself to smaller moments of epiphany, holding his predicament
internally as much as possible. In one astonishing scene, Curtis looks upon a
dance of lightning in the sky, and asks aloud “Is anyone else seeing this?” His
answer is not a scream but a quiet ask for solidarity in his desire to
understand the changing world.
And
it’s that sense of uncertainty that the end could come at any age that makes Take Shelter a calm and collected take
on our American subconscious. No doubt Mr. Nichols set his film among the working
class in a state where jobs are rapidly shrinking, and health care costs
rapidly rising. Curtis’s visions may not come true, but they do affect the way
he approaches his own masculinity, something he tries to preserve through
emotional reservation and a strong temper than cannot stand. My one fault of
the film comes in its ending, which attempts to provide an ambiguous statement
about the realities of the narrative, which makes neither logical nor emotional
sense. I’m still struggling over why exactly Mr. Nichols went with it,
especially considering the film had its emotional climax three minutes before.
That
being put aside, few American films this year will speak as well as Take Shelter. Anchored by its
performances, Mr. Nichols has made a film that sinks you into a story about
mental illness and apolcayptia. But unlike a few of the other end-of-the-world
schemed films from this year, Take
Shelter seems completely uninvolved in its vision of what may happen, and
much more worried on what is currently happening.
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