Blind.
My most latest RedBox failure was the recent thriller "Take Shelter," which chronicles Curtis, a construction worker and the father of a deaf girl, as he spirals into the depths of paranoid schizophrenia. Unfortunately, if it wasn't for the constant exposition reminding the viewer of his specific diagnosis, there would be no way of knowing that Curtis is anything more than a protective parent. The film opens with a sequence of horrific nightmares, which are titillating enough to make the viewer excited for the film's outcome. The episodes include a dog attack and a thrilling child abduction that left me on the brink of tears. The dreams generate Curtis's paranoia and he begins to act strange. He locks up the cute family dog and wets the bed. Naturally, his wife grows concerned, but the viewer does not.
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Take Shelter
Starring: Michael Shannon, Jessica Chastain and Shea Whigham
Directed by Jeff Nichols
Not Recommended |
There is a fatal distance between the film's humdrum protagonist and those watching him. First of all, Curtis is incredibly boring and without any personality, making it excruciatingly difficult to feel any concern for his hardships. Secondly, Curtis acts relatively normal. Sure, he has quirks, but who doesn't? My point is that the man is far too rational to be a schizophrenic, even in the early stages. Curtis is far too aware of what is happening to him, even diagnosing himself and visiting his cliché of a nutcase mother, who presides in a mental institution. Now, I only know the fun facts about abnormal psychology, but I'm pretty positive that schizophrenics don't know they are schizophrenics and they certainly cannot diagnos themselves as such. That implies a certain amount of insanity that isn't there. Even if I'm wrong on this assumption, watching him rationalize everything is painfully monotonous. This film would be much more successful if it was a subjective psychological portrait a character entering a demented state of mind, but the film evades any possibly mystery of the inner workings of Curtis's mind. Furthermore, he doesn't even begin his most deluded action, building a bomb shelter, until after the halfway point. Considering that this event is the movie's namesake, it happens far too late in the movie especially since
nothing else is happening. Curtis just wallows his way through the scatter-brained storyline with a confused look on his face. He does have his moments, but they are so scarcely strewn about the movie that at the end of the day, we just don't care. The only thing extracting our sympathy is his pitifully cute deaf daughter.
In addition to the dull script that runs about an hour past it's expiration, some of the shots that director Jeff Nichols chose are unforgivable. For example, at one point the rearview mirror is utilized in order to capture the shock in Curtis's eyes after some mediocre happening. The problem is that his eyes are only dodging into the screen for 30% of the shot. I may be wrong on this, but I don't think there was a purpose to showing the viewer a shot of the stupid rearview mirror. Also, since all you needed to see were his eyes, this would take 5 minutes to reshoot. This is just one example of the plethora of flat and unappealing choices that destroyed any chance of saving this film. Fail.
The only good that I can say about
Take Shelter are it's few moments of thrill which come with the nightmares. These are all well shot and intriguing, and are the only moments of subjectivity where the digression of Curtis's mind is illustrated. However, these only lead the audience into a deep disappointment after a boring journey that takes far too long to make it's obvious point. I do love a good film about crazy bastards destroying the comforts of domesticity with paranoia, but this shit sucks.
