Film Review – Take Shelter

To lure in potential audiences, “Take Shelter” is being marketed as a psychological thriller with disaster movie overtones, hope to entice people normally drawn to such heightened experiences of screen terror. Truthfully, the feature is something different, a decidedly complex and human portrait of developing madness, employing a few acts of showy suspense theatrics to emphasize the disorder in play. “Take Shelter” is a difficult film that runs about 30 minutes longer than it should, but it’s anchored wonderfully by two outstanding lead performances from Jessica Chastain and Michael Shannon, the latter communicating a bend of reality in such a hauntingly private manner, befitting a character who understands where a path of despair will lead him, yet can’t help but shuffle along to its inevitable conclusion. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com