Though the movies often use mental illness to manipulate easy sentiment or exploit it for dramatic effect (“A Beautiful Mind”), when handled tenderly, mental illness can offer a frightening and tender experience of a troubled subject.
Jeff Nichols juggles this tension masterfully in his second feature film, “Take Shelter.” Michael Shannon (“Revolutionary Road,” “Boardwalk Empire”) plays Curtis, a Midwestern father and husband who is haunted by apocalyptic nightmares and visions of an impending storm. Curtis’s visions end in doom, but no one around him can see what he sees.
Curtis’s family has a history of mental illness. His mother was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia in her early 30s. Curtis is in his early 30s. However, this connection does not make Curtis’s visions any less real, and he begins to build a tornado shelter in his backyard to protect his family from the coming storm.
As his episodes begin to worsen, Curtis and his wife (Jessica Chastain) wonder whether they should take shelter against the storm, or against Curtis.
“Take Shelter” works as both a portrait of on-setting madness and a psychological horror film. Using sound and subjective editing, Nichols places the viewer inside Curtis’s head in order to experience the visions as he does. However, from the beginning, it is clear that the film is dealing with mental illness and visions that are not actually happening. By drawing this line early, Nichols allows his viewers to experience Curtis’s subjectivity without manipulating the mental illness for plot twists. The result is a terrifying and tender account of an always-compelling character.
Shannon is terrific as Curtis. Often a character actor or a bit part player, Shannon gets to flex his acting muscles in this intimate character portrait. He resembles a young Christopher Walken (more “The Deer Hunter” than “Balls of Fury”) with his gentle presence and quiet intensity. That’s what makes Curtis so sad and unsettling – under his stoic face, we can see a man slowly crumbling to pieces.
Shannon channels this with subtle genius through the smallest facial twitch or halted line delivery. He is a tremendous screen presence, seemingly harmless, but a little too calm, a little too slow and a little too tall in clothes that are a little too big.
As Samantha, Chastian (“The Tree of Life,” “The Help”) anchors the film with a strong emotional core. As a supportive, yet frustrated, wife, Chastain mines depth out of her character who could have been the stock “supportive wife” character in lesser hands.
“Take Shelter,” while never heavy-handed, starts to become a microcosm for life in the 2010s. It is about what bubbles underneath the surface, the horror, the dread and even the tenderness that takes a while to rise to the top. There are ways to read “Take Shelter” as a synecdoche for modern America, for the feeling of both power and danger, responsibility and paranoia.
Of course, all of this lies under the smooth surface. Everything about the film, from the acting to the script and visual effects is seamless, maybe too much so. The gradual pacing, the feeling of fear in waiting, the paranoia that everything is indeed not in its right place, cause some discomfort and restlessness as the film turns into its second hour, but perhaps that is the point.
“Take Shelter” builds momentum like a tornado, slow at first before spinning into violent disillusionment and disappearing. It opens in select cinemas this Friday.
Don’t miss it.
