Take Shelter (2011)
Average Rating: 8.1/10
Reviews Counted: 149
Fresh: 138 | Rotten: 11
Michael Shannon gives a powerhouse performance and the purposefully subtle filmmaking creates a perfect blend of drama, terror, and dread.
Average Rating: 8.7/10
Critic Reviews: 35
Fresh: 33 | Rotten: 2
Michael Shannon gives a powerhouse performance and the purposefully subtle filmmaking creates a perfect blend of drama, terror, and dread.
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Average Rating: 3.9/5
User Ratings: 20,997
Movie Info
Curtis LaForche lives in a small Ohio town with his wife Samantha and six-year-old daughter Hannah, who is deaf. Money is tight, and navigating Hannah's healthcare and special needs education is a constant struggle. Despite that, Curtis and Samantha are very much in love and their family is a happy one. Then Curtis begins having terrifying dreams about an encroaching, apocalyptic storm. He chooses to keep the disturbance to himself, channeling his anxiety into the obsessive building of a storm
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Cast
-
Michael Shannon
Curtis, Curtis LaForche -
Jessica Chastain
Samantha -
Tova Stewart
Hannah -
Shea Whigham
Dewart -
Katy Mixon
Nat -
Natasha Randall
Cammie -
Ron Kennard
Russell -
Scott Knisley
Lewis -
-
Heather Caldwell
Special Ed Teacher -
Sheila Hullihen
Woman in Road -
John Kloock
Man in Road -
Maryanna Alacchi
Bargain Hunter -
Jacque Jovic
News Anchor -
Bob Maines
Walter Jacobs -
Charles Moore
Man at Window -
Pete Ferry
Melvin -
Molly McGinnis
Janine -
Angie Marino-Smith
Kathryn -
Isabelle Smith
Sue -
Tina Stump
Nurse -
Ken Strunk
Doctor Shannan -
Maryann Nagel
Insurance Agent -
Hailee Dickens
Pharmacist -
Kathy Baker
Sarah -
Guy Van Swearingen
Myers -
Lisa Gay Hamilton
Kendra -
-
Joanna Tyler
Attendant -
Stuart Greer
Army-Navy Dave -
Ray McKinnon
Kyle -
Jake Lockwood
Andy -
Kim Hendrickson
Customer -
Bart Flynn
Dave -
Nick Koesters
Rich -
Jeffrey Grover
Psychiatrist
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All Critics (149) | Top Critics (35) | Fresh (138) | Rotten (11) | DVD (7)
A hallucinatory thriller anchored by a deeply resonant sense of unease.
Top CriticWhen future film historians look back at the cultural fallout from America's financial collapse, 'Take Shelter' will be a key text. That is, if the storm doesn't sweep us all away.
Shannon wonderfully modulates Nichols' portrait of a man whose mind and life seem to unravel before our eyes.
There's a strong, unsettling sense of disease that runs through Take Shelter, the best drama of the year so far.
In an era of empty entertainments, "Take Shelter" is built to last.
Shannon is astounding, playing a good man pushed to the brink of sanity, maybe beyond. He portrays a sense of quiet desperation -- a feeling recognizable to many.
Director Nichols walks a tightrope between giving us a dark, Gothic tale of misunderstood prophecy and a sobering lesson on the state of mental health care in rural America.
While Take Shelter isn't by any means perfect - writer/director Jeff Nichols could use a refresher course on editing - it's a powerful film, displaying a devolvement into insanity that ultimately proves to be quite visionary.
I could watch Michael Shannon stare at a wall for 90 minutes and still be captivated.
Take Shelter writer-director Jeff Nichols takes great care in detailing Curtis's journey and surrounding him with concerned loved ones.
The riveting performances turn what on paper is a fairly simple climax into quite the emotional wallop.
Quietly spellbinding until the film's astonishing final 20 minutes which make it one of the year's best.
The role of Curtis in this film is a perfect fit for Shannon's intense and slightly unhinged screen persona.
As a director, Nichols creates such an intense aura of dread and impending apocalypse during the visions that when Curtis simply describes one that is not shown in the film, we shudder at the mental image it paints.
eksetazei to thema toy me to sebasmo, thn aisiodoksia, alla kai thn apeiria toy dhmioyrgika kai koinwnika anerxomenoy, oi rizes toy sth bathia Amerikh de toy epitrepoyne kan mia "atheh" proseggish
A film that's easier to admire (at least in part) than actually like, but it's also a difficult film to ignore.
The dread in this slow simmer of a film comes not from a clearly definable sense of danger, but more from a sense of simply not knowing.
A richly drawn, and at times disturbing, portrait of one man's descent into madness.
Michael Shannon is at his best as a man plagued by apocalyptic dreams that start to bleed into his everyday life. It's one of the best independent American films of the last decade, playing on current concerns about the future of the planet.
There's something about Michael Shannon's looming height and malleable features that makes him a natural fit for playing tortured souls.
Nichols has nothing positive to say, and spends more than two hours saying it. It's a superficial movie pretending to be deep.
Parlays contemporary fears into the kind of relatable apocalyptic drama that relies less on big special effects and more on the ambiguous mental state of its protagonist.
An intriguing, painful film about the angst that's currently in the air, about misreading the runes, about embarking on actions that might make us laughing stocks, about taking wagers with and against history.
A film for troubled times, Take Shelter taps into current anxieties about economic meltdown and climate change disaster with its scarily apt depiction of a man driven to the edge by apocalyptic fears.
An impressively sustained slow-burn parable from writer-director Jeff Nichols, shot with ominous beauty, guarding its mysteries with care.
Audience Reviews for Take Shelter
Super Reviewer
What we are given is Curtis, an honest man living in a small town in Ohio who is struggling with the added financial burden of special needs classes for his deaf daughter. Nichols hits all the right touches of a bonded family, with wife Samantha supplementing the family income by sewing and embroidering while caring for their daughter. Yet slowly a darkness descends on their lives as Curtis, in a wonderfully measured performance by Michael Shannon, begins to have visions of apocalyptic proportions. The central question is whether these visions and nightmares are prophetic or a sign of mental illness. Nichols walks a fine line in leaving that determination to the viewer.
The juxtaposition between small town life where everyone seems to know everyone else (and their business) and the wonderfully filmed sequences of thunderheads crackling with lightning set the tone as Curtis and wife Samantha (well played by Jessica Chastain) go about their daily lives only to be thrown into having to face the darkness - these scenes of outrage, followed by redemption and acceptance show the strength of their love and their commitment to each other and the family they have created. It's this bond as well as the way in which Nichols so easily gives us a view of a way of life that not only adds to the suspense but separates this film from so many other neo apocalyptical films (for in this case the film isn't so much about the apocalypse (because it may or may not be real, or may or may not be mere metaphor), but about a man's mind and his soul, as well as the soul of his loving wife.
The film certainly takes a measured pace in doling out the story, which at times dampens the tension, but overall this is a terrific study in humanity and how the human mind is capable of projecting our fears into our dreams - whether or not this is an illness, or part of the human condition is part and parcel of the film's mystery. Check it out and decide for yourself.
Super Reviewer
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- Curtis LaForche: What if it's not ended?
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- Curtis: You think I'm crazy? Well, listen up, there's a storm coming like nothing you've ever seen, and not a one of you is prepared for it.
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- Curtis LaForche: Next vacation, we're going to the mountains.
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- Curtis: Is anyone else seeing this?
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- Curtis LaForche: [prophetic] There's a storm comin'!
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- Curtis LaForche: [ranting angrily at a roomful of neighbors] Sleep well in your beds. 'Cause if this thing comes true, there ain't gonna be any more.
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Latest News on Take Shelter
May 9, 2013:
Jeff Nichols and Michael Shannon Reunite for Untitled Sci-Fi ProjectThe "Take Shelter" duo is getting back together on the Warner Bros. lot.
December 13, 2012:
Michael Shannon and Samantha Morton Reap The HarvestThe duo is lined up to star in John McNaughton's psychological thriller.
November 29, 2011:
Take Shelter and The Artist Lead Independent Spirit Award NomineesEach feature earns five nods, with other favorites including "Beginners," "Drive," and "The...
Fresh Links
Featured
Movie: ID: 771224184 Title: Take Shelter Release Date: 2011-09-30 00:00:00.0 MPAA: 4 Status: 1
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Foreign Titles
- Take Shelter - Ein Sturm zieht auf (DE)
Michael Shannon, the man who made Bug even more amazing than it already was and who rocked the insane sorority girl's email, delivers an astounding performance in this film. What is so great about him is his restraint, while underneath one can see a seething pit of emotional energy. His work in the film solidifies him as one of the best new actors. Jessica Chastain is also good.
The film as a whole snuck up on me. I thought it was moving slowly and predictably until the last act. Shannon's work was compelling, but the plot didn't find its legs until the end, but once it did, the scenes were compelling, and I found that I had grown to care about these characters.
Overall, this is an astounding thriller, and Shannon is a fantastic actor.