It is that ominous feeling of the unknown which frightens most people. That eerie feeling you get and you can’t really explain why. We all have those moments, either in the dead of night or just going through the motions of the day, but sometimes it is just us who has these feelings. Everyone you turn to are oblivious or don’t know what you are feeling, it dawns on you that maybe something is off with the world or life. It is a weird struggle to understand those feelings and even more complicated when you can’t tell discern between your emotions and what you feel is wrong. They bleed into one another, ultimately taking over.
Take Shelter is a film that explores that connection between the real and uncertainty that plagues one individual, a family man who starts having visions of a turbulent, oncoming storm. Taking precautions to start safeguarding his family, he begins to obsessively prepare the worst, not even sure if and when it will happen. This film did not get a lot of play in the theater, a short theatrical run punctuated with a home video release just weeks ago, I caught Take Shelter at a local film fest about 8 months ago and was floored.
Personally, the film is made all the better with Michael Shannon’s incredible portrayal of the patriarch of the family and his struggles to understand and prepare for what he believes is the righteous storm that will change humanity. In a sense, faith and unknown uncertainty play a big role in the film. The two concepts go hand in hand as people who fear the unknown of life, will retreat to faith as a form of insurance against the unknown tide. An incredible film that weaves together the thriller and dramatic genre together. Shannon is explosive in several pivotal scenes and he is so unassuming with his quiet disposition that his outbursts take you by surprise and sell his fear.
I have attached my previous review to this post today and hope that you will all go out and rent the film in some manner. I am becoming a big fan of Shannon and this film helps sells him as a leading indie film man. Jessica Chastain also plays the wife in the film and sadly this role got overlooked come awards season in favor of her role in The Help. Personally I think she handles herself incredibly well and acts as a perfect counterbalance to Shannon.
We have all had that feeling when we wake up in the middle of the night. A cold sweat, labored breathing and panic. We chalk it up to just being a bad dream and nothing more, but there is this lingering feeling that there is something real about we just felt. Panic, fear, uncertainty and the unyielding tone of dread that makes us questions if what we were dreaming is real or not. It feels real to us, but hard to explain and put into words. Take Shelter is just like that feeling, one that stabs at us in the night makes us begin to question what is real and a dream. Omens, premonition, signs, what does it all mean? Take Shelter looks at one man’s dreams or visions and how they begin to affect his daily life. The dreams bleed over to his conscious state and we aren’t certain if he is going insane or having a vision about an impending doom. read more here
*images via RottenTomatoes
