Take Shelter

Director: Jeff Nichols, Shea Whigham, Tova Stewart Jeff Nichols

Overview

An Ohio family man experiences a series of disturbing visions that gradually begin to weigh on his marriage and community when he begins obsessively constructing a heavily fortified storm shelter. Curtis LaForche (Michael Shannon) has a good life. He lives in a beautiful house with his loving wife, Samantha (Jessica Chastain), and their deaf six-year-old daughter, Hannah (Tova Stewart), but begins to sense that something ominous is on the horizon when the dark clouds of swelling storms begin invading his dreams. Taciturn, Curtis refuses to discuss the dreams with anyone, but feels compelled to dig out a massive storm shelter with the help of a good friend (Shea Whigham). Meanwhile, as Samantha grows increasingly concerned with Curtis' erratic behavior, the local rumor mill begins to churn. Are Curtis' dreams a prophetic omen of things to come, or is he perhaps headed down the same dark road as his mother, who was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia when she was approximately the same age that he is now?

Product Details

Release Date:	02/14/2012
UPC:	0043396394971
Original Release:	2011
Rating:	R
Source:	Sony Pictures
Region Code:	1
Sound:	[Dolby Digital Stereo, Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround]
Language:	English
Time:	2:01:00
Sales rank:	35,364

Special Features

Deleted Scenes; Commentary with Jeff Nichols & Michael Shannon; Behind the Scenes of Take Shelter; Q&A with Michael Shannon & Shea Whigham

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Tova Stewart	Hannah LaForche
Natasha Randall	Cammie
Ron Kennard	Russell
Scott Knisley	Lewis
Robert Longstreet	Jim
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	Actor
Pete Ferry	Melvin
Molly McGinnis	Janine
Angie Marino-Smith	Kathryn
Isabelle Smith	Sue
Tina Stump	Nurse
Ken Strunk	Doctor Shannan
Maryann Nagel	Insurance Agent,l'agent d'assurance
Hailee Dickens	Pharmacist
Kathy Baker	Sarah
Guy Van Swearingen	Myers
William Alexander	EMT
Joanna Tyler	Attendant
Stuart Greer	Army-Navy Dave
Jake Lockwood	Andy
Kim Hendrickson	Customer
Bart Flynn	Dave
Nick Koesters	Rich
Jeffrey Grover	Psychiatrist
LisaGay Hamilton	Kendra
David Wingo	Composer

Technical Credits

Jeff Nichols

Jeff Nichols	Director,Screenwriter
Shea Whigham	Director
Tova Stewart	Director
Sophia Lin	Producer
Tyler Davidson	Producer
Kevin Flanigan	Producer
Robert Ruggeri	Producer
Adam Wilkins	Producer
Christos V. Konstantakopoulos	Executive Producer
Colin Strause	Executive Producer,Executive Producer
Richard Rothfield	Executive Producer
Sarah Green	Executive Producer
Richard Rothfeld	Executive Producer
Lyman Hardy	Sound Effects
Chris Perot	Executive Producer
Will Files	Sound/Sound Designer

Editorial Reviews

Mental illness can be an incredibly difficult subject matter to portray in film; even if the screenplay is written with sincerity and a genuine sense of authenticity, a poor performance or misguided directorial choices can easily taint the whole endeavor. In Take Shelter, writer/director Jeff Nichols presents a sensitive and extraordinarily expressive profile of a hardworking family man contending with the slow onset of schizophrenia. With the talented Michael Shannon in the lead and a screenplay that allows the audience inside his character's head as his mental deterioration progresses, the viewer can't help but get emotionally involved. Curtis LaForche (Michael Shannon) has a good life. He lives in a beautiful house with his loving wife, Samantha (Jessica Chastain), and their deaf six-year-old daughter, Hannah (Tova Stewart), but he begins to sense that something ominous is on the horizon when the dark clouds of swelling storms begin invading his dreams. The taciturn Curtis refuses to discuss the dreams with anyone, but he feels compelled to dig out a massive storm shelter with the help of his good friend Dewart (Shea Whigham). Meanwhile, as Samantha grows increasingly concerned with Curtis' erratic behavior, the local rumor mill begins to churn. Are Curtis' dreams an omen of things to come, or is he perhaps headed down the same dark road as his mother, who was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia when she was approximately the same age that he is now? With a filmography that reads like the inmate list at a small psych ward, Take Shelter star Shannon has excelled at portraying deeply disturbed characters in movies such as Bug and Revolutionary Road. Here, Shannon infuses Curtis LaForche's increasing instability with a sense of desperation that makes it impossible for the viewer not to sympathize as he becomes a pariah at his job, in his community, and -- most painfully of all -- in his own home. Curtis is a man whose body exists in the real world, while his mind is being sucked helplessly into a darker mirror image of reality where his loved ones have turned malevolent and Mother Nature has decided to strike back against mankind. Shannon's quietly intense performance conveys the anguish of such an agonizing experience in a way that never feels exploitive or overplayed. He's simply a man who seeks to protect his family, but can't realize that he may be the biggest threat of all. A powerful scene in which Curtis nervously visits his schizophrenic mother in an assisted-care facility not only says quite a bit about the protagonist's character -- he remains dutifully composed while his fate becomes frighteningly clear -- but also about writer Nichols' talent as a screenwriter who recognizes the power of minimalism. Meanwhile, 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. Curtis' wife Samantha is without question the character in the film who bears the most of his mental breakdown, and actress Jessica Chastain beautifully conveys the conflicting fear, anger, and concern that goes along with watching her husband's painful deterioration. Likewise, rising actor Whigham continues his winning streak of colorful supporting characters; in films such as Machete and Barry Munday, Whigham has displayed a penchant for the cartoonish, but by toning it down in Take Shelter, the talented supporting player displays a flair for drama that has been conspicuously absent from many of his higher profile roles. Despite the surreal flourishes on display during Curtis' dreams and hallucinations, Take Shelter unfolds in a straightforward manner that is only betrayed in the film's final scene -- a tantalizingly abstract coda that seems to be more figurative than literal. And while some may question Nichols' decision to abruptly depart from his realistic approach so late in the game, the ending is intriguing more for what it doesn't show, rather than for what it does.

Michael Shannon turns in a haunting performance as a small-town man tormented by apocalyptic visions. To protect his family, he obsessively constructs a backyard storm shelter in the face of a scornful ­community.

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