Take Shelter

I knew almost nothing about Take Shelter before I saw it – I knew it was about a man building a storm shelter, and that it was quite intense. That was all. So I expected a film about surviving the worst nature can throw at you. What Take Shelter actually is, quite surprisingly, is a film about coping with the onset of paranoid schitzophrenia in the American Midwest when everything about your upbringing and community makes you want to cope with it yourself.

The technical aspects of Take Shelter are great – superb and believable performances, nice imagery (slightly better CG for its sparse use would have been an improvement), some excellent shot composition and a lovely contrast between the wide open landscape and skies and the tight, tight spaces, both of them in turns threatening and safe.

A man begins to have vivid dreams that affect him in his waking life. He dreams his dog bites him, and never trusts the poor thing again. He dreams there are people out to get him. And he dreams a great storm is coming. His actions lead to disaster for his family and his friendships – and eventually it all comes pouring out in a brief and stark psychotic episode.

Most of the film is build-up to the point where main character Curtis has his fears vindicated and eventually he has to face his problems. The trouble is that this puts too much weight on some rather hollow ideas for the ending of the film. There are three: first, Curtis has to confront the fact that the storm is inside his head. Perhaps it’s because I hear Mum and Dad talking about the paranoid schizophrenics they have to deal with, but part of me was really annoyed when the wife told Curtis he has to face up to his fears to bring about a change in himself. As if a paranoid schizophrenic will be cured by one revelation that a delusion was hallucinated. But it was something the character would believably do – I just would have rather it was made clearer her actions could have doomed her to a much worse result. Next, there was a scene where Curtis finally gets proper help and is told he will need institutionalising and a lot of treatment to be able to carry on, which was much more believable and logical after what had happened. And then finally, in what felt like a completely hollow insertion by a studio’s writer just to have what seems to be an ambiguous twist, we see a storm that may or may not be hallucinated.

It’s all just somewhat false. The film was very strong and while mental health issues are always a very easy way for an actor to be acclaimed, this one was performed superbly, with a character who could have been easy to dislike being very sympathetic. There just could have been a snappier pace and the ending could have said much more than it did.