FILM

USA 2011 121 mins Dir: Jeff Nicholls Starring: Michael Shannon, Jessica Chastain

Imagine the first act of an M. Night Shyamalan movie - 'The Happening', say - stretched out to two hours and given an indie makeover. So we still get all the spooky portents such as ominous skies and animals behaving oddly. But this time the focus is on whether the protagonist whose apocalyptic visions and doomsaying nobody believes is actually bonkers after all. That's 'Take Shelter' in a nutshell. Something of a companion piece to 'Another Earth', Jeff Nicholls' Cannes and Sundance award-winner makes sparing use of effective digital effects as it puts a human scale on a genre that is usually the preserve of the expensive blockbuster filled with two-dimensional characters.

Michael Shannon gives a riveting performance as blue-collar schmo Curtis LaForche, who scrapes by in rural Ohio with his loving wife Samantha (the suddenly ubiquitous Jessica Chastain) and their deaf six-year-old nipper. But troubled Curtis is plagued by nightmares and daytime visions of impending disaster. Determined to protect his family, he becomes obsessed with renovating an old storm shelter, spending money he can ill-afford and endangering both his marriage and job. Along the way, we learn that his mother was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia at the age of 30. This muddies the waters and causes Curtis to join everyone else in doubting his sanity.

'Take Shelter' will have disaster movie fans drumming their fingers impatiently as they wait for the space aliens/tsunami/giant meteorite to show up. Nicholls certainly seems unsure which ending to deliver. In some respects, this is reminiscent of Todd Haynes's over-praised 'Safe' in its attempt to encapsulate modern anxieties, but Shannon's anguished performance as the unravelling Curtis and Nicholls' deft handling of mounting dread prove more engaging than the continuous whining of that film. (Robin Askew)

Website www.sonyclassics.com/takeshelter/

Opens: 25 Nov

Copyright Robin Askew 2011