Take Shelter

"Take Shelter" is a film of a bizarre beauty. One of the most touching recent dramas, one of the most shocking thrillers, and if you can appreciate it, a bottomless pit of references, metaphors, subtleties.

Because "Take Shelter" is one of those films that creates fascination, whose final scenes connect with the first ones, scenes that can generate in the viewer vivid dreams and visions on an endless loop. It is also a “world movie”, with an impeccable visual consistency, capable of building a powerful imaginarium.

This can be considered an “experience movie” because it can drive us to a state of constant tension, drawing a crescendo of big intensity. "Take Shelter" is the best representative of that other American film industry that, without the support of large production companies and promotional campaigns, is capable of touching and sinking the viewers.

Immediate cult film and one of the most pleasant surprises for us this 2012. Hide in the nearest shelter because it is a bomb is about to explode... a bomb of great cinema.

"Take Shelter" is a mixture of genres. There are many subplots in this story of a father who wants to protect his family at all costs. We are faced with one of the most striking portraits of middle class American families: conservative, religious, superstitious and rural. A great metaphor of lack of verbal and emotional communication among human beings is represented by the little deaf daughter.

The memory of a past that weighs heavily sets conditions for a lifetime. It also refer to the financial crisis and its impact on society, through the protagonist's mental disorders. A risky bet with echoes of religious apocalypse. A mystical and melancholic story that tells us the end and beginning of a cycle and, above all, a “fear” story, but in an almost metaphysical fear: 'fear of fear', fear of things to come, panic to repeat the mistakes of our parents.

Nichols gets all the pieces of "Take Shelter" to fit perfectly. To take it to the next level, he plays with the possibilities of a story whose interpretation may not be that worth it but that is still rich enough to  draw a symphony of possibilities and meanings.

“Take Shelter” must not be thought, but mostly felt: that is why it is so difficult to explain this film in which  imaginary storms of ordinary citizens turn into prophets at the edge of madness; in which magnificent skies  unfold before the eyes of a man who asks himself whether he is living, hallucinating or dreaming.

Do not let anyone tell you anything before you see it. Amaze yourselves watching Michael Shannon achieving an interpretation superior to the ones of the candidates for the Oscars, in a fantastic mash up between Nicholson from The Shining and Jake Gyllenhaal in Donnie Darko.

Believe that "Take Shelter" has the best Jessica Chastain to see up to the date. "Take Shelter" cracks bones and tests the viewer's senses. A memorable show, marvelous and epic.

Director: Jeff Nichols

Writer: Jeff Nichols

Stars: Michael Shannon, Jessica Chastain and Shea Whigham