Take Shelter (2011)

This movie is the proof that the world is becoming a sick and dumb place

It's an amazing and heartbreaking story.

Just intense enough to provide a much-needed diversion, just lightweight enough to make you forget about it soon after it’s over. It’s not exactly “good,” per se, but it does what it sets out to do in terms of putting us on edge, which makes it … successful?

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

Take ShelterThe chemistry among the lead characters; especially the relationship between Michael Shannon and Tova Stewart who plays her daughter, communicates in all levels with the audience through its subtle tone that it stays true to, till the last frame. The writing is strong and powerful and is aware of its character's range and properties that it uses it wisely and projects the best possible outcome at its most intense dramatic scene that stays with the audience even after leaving the screen. It is short on technical aspects like sound department, although it is shot beautifully with amazing camera work and perfect editing. Jeff Nichols; the writer-director, surpasses its thought-provoking script through his brilliant execution skills which speaks volume in here. The performance objective is satisfied utterly by the brilliant cast like Michael Shannon, Jessica Chastain and a delightful young talented actress named Tova Stewart. Despite of its grounded nature script, there are few fictionalized or fantasized sequences installed so perfectly that it leaves the audience in the awe of it. Take Shelter is overprotective and immensely secured of its character's perspective that helps fuel this character driven feature into reaching a far fetched idea.

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.

First, "the good news." It has a great cast, headed by an always understated Michael Shannon, utterly wasted in this monumental mistake of a movie. But by what supernatural event it managed to even recoup its production costs back is a miracle of Biblical proportions. Now, for "the bad news." I have always known that foreign films progress much more slowly than American films, taking their time and gradually building to a climax, such as the case in this epic loser. This entire movie was about as interesting as watching weeds grow, nothing personal against weeds. The ONLY thing that kept me in the room was hoping for a big "pay off," a climax that NEVER CAME. Instead, it was a droll, completely uninteresting, boring, fatally clichéd, anti-climatic, uttering moronic ending with all the inventiveness and creativity of week old, moldy bread, nothing personal against moldy bread. The only thing WORSE than this replacement for heavy duty sleep medication, were the over the top reviews that some brain dead imbeciles and major league psychopaths gave this pile of junk. Could we have possibly been watching the same movie?? The only thing I want to do after subjecting myself to this pitiful excuse for "entertainment," is to sue the producers who made this horrendous turkey for the two lost hours of my life back.

All the details aside, the movie as a whole is just mesmerizing.I can understand why some people find it (really) boring. After all it's no roller-coaster ride. No, it's a totally different kind of thrill. It's that kind that captivates you so slowly that you don't realize it. In my opinion this is the best kind of suspense.This mood has been achieved by outstanding acting performances, by an amazing cinematography, by a perfect fitting score, by an excellent direction and editing, by a fascinating story and basically by everything else I forgot to mention.This movie is for everyone who enjoys movies with a slow, natural pace.E.g. if you love the pace of Tarkovski, of "2001", "Fitzcarraldo" and "Paris,Texas", this movie is for you. If you prefer the Extended Editions of "Lord of the Rings" to the standard versions and the Redux version of "Apocalypse Now" to the original one - this movie is for you. If you rather lie on a hill and watch people and animals, when you're visiting a foreign country, instead of partying in the biggest club in town - this movie is for you.This is the first movie by Jeff Nichols that I've watched and I'm really looking forward to watching everything else made by him.Thank you, Jeff.