This Week at the Movies

California preacher Harold Camping may have miscalculated the apocalypse earlier this year, but Curtis LaForche’s visions of the end of days are of a more ambiguous nature.

Michael Shannon plays Curtis in an extraordinary performance in Jeff Nichols’s haunting new film, “Take Shelter,” in which a good father and husband is driven to the brink of insanity by dreams of doomsday destruction.

This is not a Hollywood special effects extravaganza, but rather a micro-budget independent film set in small town Ohio that makes great use of its tense performances, barren landscapes and timely themes.

In fact, “Take Shelter” is a perfect movie for our age of anxiety. Curtis’s job as a construction worker has paid for a modest home he shares with his wife, Samantha (the ubiquitous Jessica Chastain), and daughter, Hannah (Tovah Stewart), who is deaf and needs a cochlear transplant.

One of the film’s most effective methods of driving home the current economy’s effect on the LaForches is the use of close-ups on gas pump prices or the family’s budget, which Curtis adds up on a notepad.

The picture also manages to slip in health care anxieties without beating us over the head. Samantha haggles with insurers to obtain her daughter’s operation and, in one particularly effective scene, Curtis is surprised at the cost of medication.

“That’ll be $47,” he is told by the pharmacist.

“How much is my co-pay?” he asks.

“That is your co-pay.”

As the picture opens, Curtis is struggling to find meaning behind a series of eerie dreams that plague him every night. Each dream begins with an ominous sky and rain that bears similarity to motor oil. Enormous flocks of birds fly in strange patterns. The nightmares typically end with an attack by a dog, a co-worker, a loved one or random blurry figures.

It turns out that Curtis’s mother, who now lives in assisted living, was diagnosed as a schizophrenic in her 30s. Curtis, now 35, attempts to hide his apparent descent.

One of the picture’s more fascinating elements is that Curtis recognizes that his dreams and escalating paranoia hint at madness, but he still feels compelled to make preparation for “something [that] may be coming, something not right.”

At the dismay of his wife, friends and employer, he begins building out an underground storm shelter, purchasing gas masks and enough food supplies to last for weeks.

The film is a tense experience from beginning to end. Shannon delivers a brilliant slow burn performance, portraying a kind man wound tight by an uncontrollable obsession and Chastain is just as good in a mostly reactive role as Curtis’s frustrated wife.

“Take Shelter” is Nichols’s follow-up to his critically acclaimed 2008 movie, “Shotgun Stories.” His sophomore effort pushes him to the forefront of American independent filmmaking.

Anton Chekhov once wrote that if a gun is introduced in the first act, then it is certain to be fired by the play’s end. In Nichols’s film, the storm shelter is the gun and there is no doubt that Curtis and his family will end up in it.

The picture’s ambiguous ending has already caused much critical debate as to whether a final scene is of a literal or figurative nature. Either way, it’s a brilliant finale to a spellbinding film.

“Dream House” is Hollywood’s version of a descent into insanity and it comes with some pedigree of talent involved: director Jim Sheridan (“My Left Foot” and “In the Name of the Father”) and stars Daniel Craig, Rachel Weisz and Naomi Watts.

But the movie feels choppy and its central mystery is unveiled too late in the film to give it the necessary impact.

Craig moves his family (Weisz and two daughters) into a home that, as it turns out, previously belonged to a man who murdered his – wait for it – wife and two daughters. Watts, a wonderful actress who is underutilized here, is on-hand as the neighbor who provides furtive glances.

If you’ve seen the trailer, you already know about the film’s first plot twist, which occurs about halfway through the picture. Another one takes place in the film’s final act and while its randomness clears up some of the story’s mysteries, it is unable to hit the note for which the filmmakers appear to be reaching.

The cast is able and Sheridan is a great filmmaker, but “Dream House” is an example of a studio movie made by genuine talent that feels restricted by its Hollywood trappings. 

Related Topics: Anton Chekhov, Dream House, Film, Harold Camping, Jeff Nichols, Jessica Chastain, Jim Sheridan, Michael Shannon, Movies, and daniel craig