94% Take Shelter

Take Shelter. When I first saw a trailer for Jeff Nicoles film "Take Shelter" staring Michael Shannon and Jessica Chastain, in late may, after premiering at Sundance and receiving high praise, I said, I would be a fool to miss this film when it comes to theaters. This may have been one of the best films I have seen all year, with one of the best performances I have seen in a long time. Michael Shannon delivers a tremendously brilliant performance of a man losing his grip on reality. This movie was captivating from opening frame to closing credits. Everyone involved in the making of this film was in control of a methodical vision, executing flawlessly and gracefully an original story was refreshing and intriguing; accompanied by a beautifully original and somewhat unsettling score that carries the film. Take Shelter tells the story of a man who begins having visions of a gathering storm that's dark and ever-present, often waking up in a cold sweat. Shannon loves his wife, loves his young daughter who's deaf and works for a construction crew with a close friend. Building out his backyard storm shelter is the only way to cope with his nightly horrors, letting the details of his life roll away like a passing thunder cloud, until everything he's made for himself drips away like rain drops on a window, ending with a self destructive scene that's sure to be remember for time to come. Jeff Nicoles wields the elements in this film like a perfectly tuned symphony, culminating with a man descending into a mortal and imminent delusion, or so we think. This is the point where I stop telling you what happen's because this movie is so well crafted, my words can't do it the justice it so deserves. Michael Shannon, is worthy of every single accolade for his performance. Come oscar season he should be nominated, and this film should be as well for best picture. It's filmmaking at it's highest caliber. Now, I have seen plenty of films about people losing there minds; Leo in Shutter Island, Robert De Niro in Taxi Driver, Kathy Bates in Misery, Christian Bale in American Psycho and my all time favorite "give me the bat Wendy" crazy man performance from Jack Nicholson in Stanley Kubrick's "The Shining", but they all those characters lose their cool, becoming wildly crazy and belligerent with rage or denial. Not in this film. It's a madness that I have never seen before, it's wonderful and original, a reservedly subtle and droning slip into the delusions of a unknown darkness. Shannon displays a madness that is so powerfully coaxing you can't look away in fear of missing a nuanced flair of his acting finesse.Chastain stands her ground by portraying the wife who's so in the dark she doesn't realize the torture until it's too late, crying to to be let into his feeling's, soon becoming aware that her loving husband is lost in a world of storm clouds and thunderbolts, underground in a storm shelter that is as much a clutch as it is a coping mechanism. What I loves about this film was it's perfectly precise pace and impeccable framing, capturing a family that's picking up the pieces of a man who's lost his sense of reality. It's droning builds to a suspenseful intoxicating final act that will leave you holding your breath until the end, revealing a reality no one else can see. It's terrifying in a way that's real and unflinching. No one is ever in mortal or physical terror, but a terror that could be closer to home than people think. That's what makes it so intriguing, so enticing to witness; it's normal church going christian who leaves the real world for a shipping container under the soil. The Shining wondered hallways with elements of isolation and obedience in a cavernous hotel; Shutter island danced with themes of psychosis and paranoia, and Taxi driver delivered bullets to the filthy underbelly that is new york city, from the gun of righteous vigilantly. This movie deals with man who "has a good life" and lets it come to shambles over a storm shelter. A family man who doesn't know if has schizophrenia or just cares for his families well being. If you have the chance to see it west LA at the landmark on pico in west Los Angeles or are able to catch a screening of it before it leaves cinemas, SEE IT! I have a feeling we will see this film again come Oscar season. Hopefully is gets a wide release and does well. I SAY IT'S MUST SEE!

October 3, 2011

Source: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/take_shelter/

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