The most overlooked performance by a lead actor in 2011 was Michael Shannon’s performance as the delusional Curtis LaForche in the Jeff Nichols (Shotgun Stories) bone-chilling drama Take Shelter. Though Shannon’s acting career began in 2001, and the first three movies he appeared in (Pearl Harbor, Vanilla Sky, and 8 Mile) each grossed over $100,000,000 at the box office, it wasn’t until 2008 when he earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor after two jaw-dropping scenes as a mentally unstable man in Revolutionary Road.

• In Take Shelter, Shannon is at the top of his game as a husband and father of a six-year-old daughter named Hannah (Tova Stewart). Hannah is deaf, and her healthcare and special needs education requires time and money that Curtis and his wife Samantha (Jessica Chastain – The Help, The Tree of Life). Though they make ends meet financially and do what they need to do to devote as much time to Hannah as possible, life is not easy. Curtis works as an on-site manager for a contracting firm. His days are spent drilling test holes with his co-worker and best friend Dewart (Shea Whigham –  Tigerland, All the Real Girls). His nights are spent either at a local pub or with his wife and daughter, who he loves very much. Curtis is a likable and respected man in the community, so much so that Dewart says early on in the movie, “You have a good life, Curtis…I think that’s the biggest compliment you can give a man.”

  Curtis does have a good life. He has a steady job that he is good at. He has a loving relationship with his wife and a daughter he cherishes. He has a lovely little house in rural Ohio. He even has a dog named Red that he loves and one that loves his entire family. He’s living his version of the American dream. But when Curtis begins having hallucinations and delusions that include disturbing and vivid nightmares of his family being hurt by strangers and some of those closest to him and visions of an impending apocalyptic storm with a motor-oil-type rain falling from the sky, his life slowly begins changing for the worst. He begins altering his behaviors based on what happens in these delusions and hallucinations. They are so life-like to Curtis that he is convinced they are a prediction of what will happen. Curtis fails to communicate effectively with his wife, and, as a result, their relationship begins to suffer. While she is pinching pennies, he is buying thousands upon thousands of dollars worth of material to build a storm shelter that he has convinced himself he will need.

  I’ve provided enough of a back story here to hopefully get you interested in seeing this fantastic movie without giving too much else away. The unanswered question is whether these foreboding predictions prove to be accurate or if something else is affecting Curtis.

  The direction in Take Shelter is fantastic. Nichols and Shannon teamed up in 2007 for the critically acclaimed Shotgun Stories. While Shotgun Stories is one of the best movies you’ve never heard of, it doesn’t compare to this follow-up effort. This is also Michael Shannon’s best performance to date (including Revolutionary Road). You can’t take your eyes off him as he struggles to come to grips with all that is happening around him. Chastain is fantastic as his devoted wife, who continues to support and love him despite his increasingly erratic behavior. The movie is slow and methodical but never dull or stale. Despite its sometimes maddening slow pace, I was glued to the edge of my seat, waiting for something to happen. For me, the payoff was rewarding. It will only be for some people, and plenty of people will probably hate this movie as much as I hated The Tree of Life. I am okay with a slow movie’s pace as long as I believe in what it is going on. For me, that was the case with Take Shelter. With The Tree of Life, I was bored, didn’t know what was happening, and felt like I was purposefully being tricked. It was the most miserable experience I’ve ever had at a movie theater (and I’ve seen plenty of bad movies in the theater). I wish I had seen Take Shelter in the theater because of its engrossing nature. I can only imagine how great it would have been to be on the big screen. I wish Michael Shannon had received the Best Actor nomination over Gary Oldman for Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. How did Oldman capture that last nomination over Shannon or Leonardo DiCaprio for J. Edgar? But the Academy’s disregard for young actors in leading roles is a different topic for another day.

  Plot 9/10
  Character Development 10/10
  Character Chemistry 10/10
  Acting 10/10
  Screenplay 9/10
  Directing  10/10
  Cinematography 9.5/10
  Sound 9.5/10 (I soon won’t forget the scene of the family waiting to leave the shelter)
  Hook and Reel 9/10 (Hooked me, but it probably had a lot to do with me knowing a little something about the movie going in)
  Universal Relevance 9/10 (You’ll be more likely to agree after the film than you might halfway through it)
  95%

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