The looming figure of Michael Shannon, a 6-foot-3-inch actor with a square jaw and a haunted countenance, would seem to be hard to keep on the sidelines.
But that’s where Shannon has spent most of his screen time, doing interesting work in small roles in “The Runaways” and “Machine Gun Preacher,” participating in the ensemble of “Boardwalk Empire,” and notching a supporting actor Oscar nomination for “Revolutionary Road.”
When he occupies the center of a movie, look out, because something peculiar is surely going to happen. “Take Shelter” is built around Shannon’s oddness, his almost palpable discomfort in his own skin and his biblical-prophet look.
He plays Curtis, a Midwestern construction manager whose seemingly ordinary life is suddenly cracking. Curtis begins having visions, in his sleep and eventually while waking: of terrible storms, of violent attacks and of inexplicable plagues of birds and rain made of oil.
He has his reasons for not sharing this torment with his wife (Jessica Chastain, “Tree of Life”), and besides, they’ve got their hands full with their hearing-impaired daughter (Tova Stewart). In panicked desperation, Curtis begins building out the modest storm shelter in the back yard, preparing for something that must be on the level of a nuclear apocalypse.
Not much more plot should be described, which doesn’t have a whole lot of plot to begin with. In fact, my problem with “Take Shelter” is that writer-director Jeff Nichols (“Shotgun Stories”) has an interesting idea and not much more than that.
As Curtis’s hallucinations move by, we must ask: is he really seeing warning signs, or is he just losing his marbles? And beyond that, we might sense a parable about trust, especially in the way Curtis can’t share his worries with his wife.
Although I found most of “Take Shelter” tedious, I liked a very late scene set inside the backyard storm shelter, where Curtis is challenged to actually trust in someone else’s assertion about reality. If the film ended where that scene ends, I think I’d admire it more.
But it goes forward for a final sequence that is sure to cause debate. It seems extraneous to me, but then I already knew where I stood on the question of Curtis’ mental illness.
Shannon and Chastain give strong performances, as expected. In a way, the film explains why Michael Shannon is generally exiled to supporting roles: He’s such an unsettling, uneasy presence, it really is difficult to watch a film in which he stars. That’s a compliment to the actor, but a misgiving about the movie.
“Take Shelter” (2 stars)
A Midwestern man (Michael Shannon) begins having visions that disrupt his home life — and may disrupt more than that, if his apocalyptic hallucinations have any grounding in reality. Shannon’s a powerful presence, although the movie is tedious in pursuing its single teasing idea.
Rated: R, for language.
Showing: Harvard Exit.
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