User Reviews

The family man and construction worker Curtis (Michael Shannon) is happily married with Samantha (Jessica Chastain) and they have a beloved deaf daughter, Hannah (Tova Stewart). Curtis works with his friend Dewart (Shea Whigham) in his team and his mother Sarah (Kathy Baker) has been interned in a clinic since she was thirty years old with paranoid schizophrenia.

Out of the blue, Curtis has nightmares and visions of an apocalyptic storm and he becomes obsessed to build a well equipped storm shelter for his family and him in his backyard. Curtis spends the family savings and gets a loan from the bank to prepare the shelter. His obsession affects his work and his relationship with the locals and Curtis loses his job. Does Curtis have a premonition or is he losing his sanity?

"Take Shelter" is an original drama developed in slow pace with magnificent performances. The screenplay is very well written and despite the running time of 120 minutes, the movie keeps the attention of the viewer until the very last ironic scene. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): "O Abrigo" ("The Shelter)

The movie works for 90 percent of its running time, depicting a family enduring terrible emotional hardship because of the isolated and peculiar behaviour of the father figure. For most of the film those hardships are well displayed, filled with dread and uncertainty over the main character's strange behaviour, triggered by his apocalyptic visions and dreams. The pace is almost too slow but it seems to be just enough to maintain that level of tension where you almost can't stand it and in the climactic bunker scene, it worked to a "T".

Unfortunately all the depth and intricacies of emotion that evolved over the course of the film are flushed down the toilet by an ending that betrays all of the emotional investment that we made into all the characters and their struggles. I've tried to work it out in my head that his wife is only "seeing" the storm as some sort of reflection of her desire to keep her family together and thus bypassing the treatment that he needs, but if that was the case then none of the other metaphors or even simple story elements (her not hearing the storm outside the bunker, no one else seeing or hearing anything he sees, the dream elements that were exclusive to him etc. etc.), none of those thing make sense then either, except as some elaborate trick where the meaning of these element isn't really established at all. It all just seems like some whim to pull off an "AHA" ending. Either that or its just a poorly executed ending.

The big problem with the ending is that the whole movie is about this man and woman trying to keep their family together, staying together through struggle (with his hallucinations and the subsequent chaos they cause), raising a child and then after the bunker scene it stops being about the family and turns into 2012.

The intricate struggles of dealing with mental illness, its effect on family, friends, and workplace are all wonderfully displayed and I don't think I'm alone in thinking that that was the intent of the first 7/8 of the film. To have it all become a "see you were wrong" thing is cheap and crappy.

Fear is the driving force for most of humanity, whether we choose to admit it or not. We fear financial distress, health problems, losing the people we love, and even bad weather. Fear grips our ability to function properly, to mentally process right and wrong, and to keep hold of the things we cherish most. Fear is the ring-leader in our circus of life. Take Shelter is an exposition of how fear can rule and ruin our lives. In this film, Curtis, played by Michael Shannon, succumbs to his greatest fear of "the storm" that is coming. Curtis begins dreaming of a horrific storm that not only takes his life but the lives of those he loves. This storm is almost depicted as an end-times, natural disaster. Curtis' dream becomes all-consuming for him as it starts impacting not only his sleep, but his life during the day. It is the fear of the dream becoming a reality that drives Curtis over the edge. Because of this, his job, finances, relationships, and marriage are all affected. This film is so much more than just the average apocalyptic, fear-fest. Take Shelter also portrays the commitment and faithfulness of marriage during a time of extreme doubt and confusion. It is beautifully portrayed how and why Samantha (Curtis' wife) stays so committed to her husband, even after he has given her plenty of reasons to leave. In a culture where over 40% of marriages end in divorce, this film speaks profoundly against that percentage. It is a refreshing experience to see the storms of marriage overcome by the vow of commitment. This film could quite possibly stir up a new statistic…and I think that would do the world some good.

This movie is a slow one. Unnecessary long takes of random scenes padded out the runtime which could have been deducted by half an hour or so.

Started out as a good drama, watching the protagonist slowly going unhinged with his nightmares , hallucinations and mood changes , messing up his relationship with his family and friends. It's then explained to the audience that his mother also had the same issue back when he was 10 and it hints towards his delusions being the outcome of some type of a hereditary schizophrenia.

This not so much complex story goes on at a snail pace for 2 hrs with nothing to tie it up until in the last 30 secs , the same storm he been seeing in his dreams shows up out of nowhere , thus killing the entire explanation they been building up since the start. As a thriller this movie is a fail but as a drama it was watchable till the last act I mentioned earlier added fantasy elements and derailed the realistic vibe they were going for. Good acting by Michael Shannon and Jessica Chastain who made the ponderous pace bearable but the last scene subverted my expectation and left me hanging.

'Take Shelter' is a part horror, part psychological drama starring the always excellent Michael Shannon, as an Ohio construction worker who has a history of mental illness in his family, and is now plagued by disturbing visions himself. The question arises whether these visions are portents of things to come or merely the hallucinations of a man gradually experiencing a complete mental breakdown. The entire film is dependent on the big 'payoff' at the end, which turns out to be intentionally ambiguous according to writer/director Jeff Nichols, and has sparked a great deal of controversy over the internet, as to how to interpret such an ambiguous denouement.

Nichols presents his story more as a parable than a drama about real life people. Most of the characters are referred to by first names only, such as Michael Shannon's 'Curtis' and his wife 'Samantha' (also well-played by Jessica Chastain). Curtis is sort of an everyman, distinguished only by the fact that his daughter, Hannah, is deaf, and that his mother is a schizophrenic, now living in an assisted living facility. Everyone in Nichols' rural Ohio community, seems to be overly grim and lacking any kind of sense of humor. What's more, there are few discussions by any of the characters that would ground them in any particular place and time.

A good part of the film is taken up with depicting all of the alarming visions Curtis is experiencing. The visions run the gamut from Curtis being attacked by his dog, zombie-like people attempting to break into his house and his car while he's driving with his daughter, as well as a giant flock of birds that seemingly hone in on Curtis as a target.

Curtis becomes convinced that the visions he experiences, are real, and as a result decides to build a shelter to protect his family from an oncoming apocalyptic storm. His co-worker buddy, Dewart, decides to help him as they borrow their company's heavy digging machinery without authorization and use it to construct the shelter. It's Dewart's devotion to Curtis that causes him to use poor judgment in allowing Curtis to use the machinery without permission. I found Dewart's capitulation to Curtis' request, still a bit too easy as of course such an action could place both their jobs in jeopardy. As it turns out, that's exactly what happens: Curtis is fired and Dewart is suspended for two weeks.

For those who were satisfied with the machinations of Nichols' grim characters for most of the film, I can only say that everyone's concept of suspense is different. My feeling was that by the end of the film, the payoff had to be pretty darn good, since the events leading up to it were markedly slow-going, a bit repetitious and not all that absorbing. Nevertheless, I will concede that the ambiguity of the film's ending is food for thought—although ultimately, not as profound as many would like to believe.

The film's ending can be interpreted in two distinct ways. The first interpretation is that Curtis' visions were real and his warnings to his community about an impending apocalypse, fell on deaf ears. The storm can be seen as the ultimate result of global warming, with Nichols criticizing those unconcerned about environmental disaster preparedness as well as a general critique on those who rely solely on rationalism as a guide through life. Ironically (with Interpretation #1), it's Samantha, Curtis' well-meaning, 'rational' wife, who gets the shock of her life when she looks out toward the horizon at the beach and sees the 'apocalypse' bearing down on her and her family. Some internet posters argue that since the storm is seen in the reflection of the beach house window (and not from Curtis' point of view which we had always seen before), this is proof that the storm is meant to be real. Interpretation #1 believers hold that when Curtis calls out to Sam at the end, and she responds, "Ok", that's her frozen in fear, acknowledging that she was wrong and Curtis was right all along.

Interpretation #2 holds that the climax is another one of Curtis' hallucinations, albeit more benign and optimistic than those that have come before. In this interpretation, the family wouldn't have taken this trip since Curtis had lost his job and they could not afford it (Interpretation #1 believers point out that Samantha had extra money stashed away and would have used it to make the trip, as part of Curtis' ongoing rehabilitation). When Sam says "okay", she's accepting Curtis' continuing mental illness but is glad that the family is still together. The final scene is in contrast to an earlier one of Curtis' hallucinations, where he perceives his wife as hostile, on the verge of grabbing a knife and perhaps attacking him. Instead of Curtis as doomed seer, he's merely a victim of mental illness, whose wife has made the commitment to stay and support him as he tries to recover.

I believe that writer/director Nichols threw in the 'Twilight Zone ending' (where Curtis' prophecy is realized), by directing Jessica Chastain to display a look of dread as she stares out at the impending storm. But overall, if one looks at the nature of Curtis' hallucinations (which include zombie-like creatures), I'm in the camp of Interpretation #2, which believes that Curtis is mentally ill.

Most of 'Take Shelter', with its generic characters and slow-moving plot, feels derivative. Only the clever, ambiguous ending, which has sparked endless discussion, is enough to save it from total mediocrity. Nonetheless, my feeling is that this probably could have worked better as a one hour, Twilight Zone-like episode, than a full-length feature.

This movie fails. Utterly and completely. Even those reviews that praise the movie concede it is "slow" and "challenging." They are right. This movie is so slow, but you keep watching it because you keep waiting for an answer to the key question, "Is the main character crazy or prophetic?" In the end, you will feel cheated.

120 minutes of the movie lead you down the path of believing the main character is crazy. These are the key events of the first two hours of this movie: the main character's life unravels piece-by-piece until he is broke, he has no job, his child's needed surgery cannot occur, his best friend hates him, and his wife is contemplating leaving him. Meanwhile, his family and friends try in vain to help. If this kind of human misery and suffering is something you enjoy watching, have at it, but also know it's been done a lot better a lot of times.

The ultimate betrayal in this movie is that the only thing that keeps you watching is finding the answer to the question of whether the main character's dreams are insane delusions or a premonition. If he was crazy, the movie could have ended with the main character repairing his life and getting the help he needs, but then within the last 30 seconds of the film, the script reveals he was actually right all along, but then just ends. Wha-wha-what? If the story takes the premonition route, it has some obligation to explain what exactly this premonition is of? Why he is the only one seeing it? Does he and his family survive? Why premonitions of the storm include such silly things as furniture floating? A decent script would have paid the viewers some amount of respect and attempted to tell the viewers SOMETHING. No. The moment we learn that he actually did predict a storm, the screen goes black. No questions are answered. No story is told.

And if I see one more review telling me how beautiful this movie has been shot, I may just have to pour lemon juice into my eyes. Yes, the movie looked good, but how does that make up for a missing plot? Or glacial pacing? It doesn't.

I did not plan on writing this review. I wanted to go to bed after this 121-minute waste of time ended, but the final scene (i.e., revealing snippet of long-awaited answer and then goes black) made me so viscerally angry that I had to say something.

What I liked about this film was the subtlety. Until a gut-wrenching scene toward the end, Michael Shannon's performance is refreshingly restrained, devoid of the hysterics that often accompany films dealing with this subject matter. The socio-political aspects lurk well under the surface, and the screenwriter never hits the viewer over the head.

What I didn't like about the film was the ending. The film should have concluded with Curtis making the choice his mother could not - to put family above his psychology - and open the doors of the shelter, without either Curtis or the viewer knowing what happens next. But the film goes five minutes too long, pulling the rug out from under the viewer as Curtis' premonitions are ultimately validated. (If the Myrtle Beach sequence was intended to be "ambiguous," as some commentators suggest, it didn't work - unlike Curtis' other premonitions, his wife is the one who actually experiences the oily rain, which clearly suggests that the end of the world is in fact being experienced outside of Curtis' head.) I can appreciate an ending like that in the right movie (e.g., Bill Paxton's 'Frailty'). But THIS is not the right movie.

The first half of this movie was great with a strange threatening atmosphere and a rising sense of tension. The second half was way too long - the tension drawn out to the point of ridiculousness. This type of movie relies on the protagonist not being able to verbalise their anxieties. What about just saying - "I'm having these terrible dreams and don't know whether I'm going round the bend or am the next Noah - hey, call me crazy".

Nope, the hero has to hold everything inside so driving everybody else crazy. The inevitable long suffering wife - the best friend (betrayed of course) The road to ruin..

I also loved the way all the characters were talking about potential economic difficulties and driving petrol hogging trucks

Not that I didn't enjoy the movie, or at least the first half, I would have preferred the director to shave 30 minutes off and ratchet up the tension to a more satisfying climax (And I don't mean a Hollywood style climax with the house and garden being invaded and everything blowing up.)

Verdict: Wait for the DVD

Take Shelter could be easily renamed to something like Anxieties of living in the 21st Century Western Country. It showcases a rich pallet of phobias, from fear of financial instability, job loss, to anxiety about upcoming environmental apocalypse. Curtis (flawlessly played by Michael Shannon) begins having dreams and visions of bad things happening to him and his family and so he decides to build a huge shelter in his backyard where they can all seek refuge in case any of his dreams were to come true. But following his instincts comes at a price – he loses his job, takes out unstable loan from a bank and destroys his deaf daughter's only chance to undergo a surgery to restore her hearing. The dreams drive Curtis into insanity as he mirrors his behaviour with what once happened to his mother, a victim of schizophrenia.

The moment Curtis admits to himself and to others that he might be going insane, the apocalypse does arrive and so everyone else is forced to agree that something bad was on its way all along. Take Shelter is a very contemporary drama, which would not have been made, let's say, ten years ago. The problems the film presents are mostly influenced by the recession, political divide in nowadays America and environmental problems caused by global warming. The director Jeff Nichols finds a perfect balance between building up the multitude of his main character's anxieties and presenting Curtis's struggle in a believable way. He escapes preaching about the presented issues and makes the sole existence of the problems uncertain up until the very last moment. What is most admirable though is that Nichols avoids religious aspects of his apocalypse and keeps it very close to life, making forces of nature the most vengeful and destructive.

Take Shelter was a rare jewel among the films presented at Sundance. It was beautifully executed (besides the outstanding performances from the cast, music and pictures are also note-worthy) and felt fresh and exciting.

A very good creepy psychological thriller. Reminds me of the Shining (1980) mixed with the Bible story Noah's Ark. Very accurate comparison. Great film, keeps you hanging by a thread with a feeling of uncertainty. Curtis LaForche (Michael Shannon) had a normal life with his wife Samantha (Jessica Chastain) and six-year-old deaf daughter Hannah. Until one day, he been having chilling nightmares about an oncoming apocalyptic storm that will end up killing his family. Those nightmares are some very terrifying and haunting scenes. I felt the one with him driving in the rain was the scariest. Second one is the birds dropping like flies. The nightmares continue to happen, as Curtis sees it as a sign that he must build a storm shelter. The only problem is money is tight, due to Hannah's health care and special needs education. He try to build it anyways, resulting in strain on his marriage and tension within the community that thinks Curtis is crazy. He starts to question himself, is he trying to protect his family from the storm, or from himself? The acting in the movie are very good. Michael Shannon did a great job. You can see it in his performance, as he fears the unknown, but yet trying really hard to stand up to his fears. Near the end he was also convinced that he was going crazy, but still in doubt. Jessica Chastain is astonishing. She acted beautifully and totally made me feel her pain as the character even though I've never been in her situation or in that kind of relationship. Totally convincing as an actress. The special effects and lighting were both good though as well as his psychological development. The musical score fits the mood perfectly. Beautifully crafted, like every single shot was given careful thought and planning by the director Jeff Nichols. I love the scene with the weird weather patterns. The movie reminded me of the movie, Melancholia (2011). Both characters were dealing with so called "mental conditions" that no one else could understand or believe, both had a feeling of impending doom. Both were excellent movies. In my opinion, I don't think building a tornado shelter is that out there crazy. It's not he was forcing them to live in a cave or in a mine for the rest of their lives. He wasn't forcing his family, but trying to protect them. The town people act like they never heard of bad storms in Ohio. There are always new reports of really bad storms hitting Ohio each year. Here are the faults of the film. The film is depressing. Some people might hate the ending of the film as it doesn't solve anything. There is no conclusion to the film. With the climax of the movie, it was sort of for shock value and not really need to progress the plot. The tone of the film is intensely ominous and I was very satisfied with the ending which came as a revelation to the characters and the viewers. Never have I seen an ending that leaves an impression like that. Incredible. Make you wondered if it was just another dream or real life. Overall: watch it to find out. I recommend it to anyone!

We couldn't stay awake to watch this. It's a very slow moving movie. We were very disappointed. The acting and photography were believable, not outstanding. The idea for the story could have made for a good movie but the way it was done was very boring. It wasn't the worst movie I ever saw and the quality was good, which is why I didn't only give it 1 star. At the rate the movie was going I was expecting to be dropped when he opened the bilco doors and that to be the end, that's as much as I expected from this movie. We were expecting to be disappointed at the rate it was going. And we were. We cannot relate to the 10 star ratings this movie has received from other reviewers. I had to voice our disappointment with the movie so that other IMDb users who may have similar tastes to us are forewarned before wasting their time viewing this movie. The constant droning music was irritating. I think I developed a headache just from that. This movie did not stimulate me in any way - thought, suspense, musically, nothing. Just a headache and frustration. Please understand this is simply our opinion and may differ from other IMDb users.