Michael Shannon and Jessica Chastain play a couple in the midst of delusion and isolation in Jeff Nichols take on declining mental health and an impending apocalypse.
Released in the UK on 25th November
There's a scene in Take Shelter that I imagine could only ever happen in small town America. The tough, towering Curtis – played by Michael Shannon – loses his mind at a community dinner and no one even cracks a smile. Punches are thrown, tables are smashed and when Curtis' long-term friend wants to know why he is ruining his life, all Curtis can do is yell “There's a storm coming!”Londoners would be in fits.
But it's Jessica Chastain's face that snuffs out any smiles. The worry and confusion that surfaces as she holds her daughter and watches her husband finally reveal the extent of his neurosis is tragic.
Plagued by nightmares and ominous apparitions, Curtis risks his job and his daughter's health by obsessing over the imminent downpour he fears. He takes out excessive loans and pours the money into a storm shelter, pushing his neighbours and his wife to question his sanity. The brutal looking Shannon plays this broken man like he's hard as nails, but never fierce. His vulnerability and fear, not just for his family's safety but for his own mental health, is touching.
When he visits his schizophrenic mother to find out if he shares her symptoms, you can't help but admire the head-on way he tackles his doubt. But then he's back to buying gas masks and director Jeff Nichols cranks up the trepidation. Eventually his family do find themselves in the storm cellar, completely at his mercy, and Chastain's stunning mix of bravery and dread is utterly compelling. By the end, Curtis seeks psychiatric help but Nichols finds ways to fuel our own inescapable doubt about whether Curtis was right or not.
Not scary enough to be a horror film, not gripping enough to be a thriller, Take Shelter, is a slow burning, sentimental but honest look at paranoia, fear and psychosis via two perfect lead performances.
Return to our BFI London Film Festival homepage
Click here for more Things to do in London
Add an event
Frieze Art Fair to launch new section for young galleries in 2012
Frieze have today announced details for the 2012 edition, their tenth art fair in London. Taking place...