TAKE SHELTER

Curtis lives his life in a quiet small town in rural America. He has a beautiful wife who loves him, an extraordinary daughter who is unfortunately deaf-mute, and a good job as a worker. Everything goes smoothly until his tranquility is disrupted by strange nightmares in which mad strangers want to harm his family and a terrifying storm is forming on the horizon. Scared to death by the apocalyptic visions, Curtis decides to prepare an anti-tornado shelter behind his house. A few years ago, the disaster genre was represented in cinema by billion-dollar blockbusters like "Deep Impact", "2012", or "The Day After Tomorrow", in which the end of the world was depicted in a triumph of action and special effects. In view of the world's ultimatum predicted by the Maya and scheduled for the end of the current year, however, the tone changes and even auteur cinema has wanted to have its say on the imminent apocalypse. Lars Von Trier has depicted it with a comet called Melancholia, while Jeff Nichols, a director just over thirty years old (here in his second film after the notable debut of "Shotgun Stories"), has announced the perfect storm with "Take Shelter", a "small great apocalyptic auteur film" that has made its appearance in various festivals around the world, winning several awards, including the Grand Prix of the Critics' Week at Cannes. Small because it had a minuscule distribution in cinemas; great because it is certainly one of the best titles of 2011. But beware, do not expect to see cities devastated by earthquakes, floods, or asteroids that destroy civilization, because you will be disappointed. Prepare for an inner apocalypse of an ordinary man who lives in an ordinary country in rural America, whose existence is suddenly devastated by nightmares, so vivid and palpable that they are indistinguishable from reality even to the viewer. A terrible storm that takes shape on the horizon followed by a dense oily rain and flocks of mad birds that swirl in the sky are some examples of the terrifying visions that disrupt the protagonist's life. A slow mental destruction of a family man ready to do anything to protect his loved ones from an imminent catastrophe, a storm of biblical proportions of which, however, there is no certainty. Despite the awareness of being on the brink of the abyss of madness, Curtis cannot help but prepare for the worst, cracking the relationships with his family, his friends, his employer, and the more he realizes he is making a mistake, the more his determination to build the bunker grows. But how can such an upright man fall victim to such mental vacillations? And if his dreams were not just dreams but rather premonitions? If Curtis were not crazy and the storm were really coming? These are the questions that viewers ask themselves continuously during the viewing of the film because the decline is so well realized that it continuously confuses the mind of the viewer. Complicit in this winning realization is the new icon of madness cinema, Michael Shannon (already accustomed to roles of madman in films like "Bug" by William Friedkin or "My Son, My Son, What Have You Done?" by Werner Herzog) who here gives us a magnificent, sad character determined in his mad objectives. Worth mentioning is also his good companion, Jessica Chastain, who, after the success of "The Tree of Life" and the Oscar nomination for "The Help", is again faced with a role as a sweet and tormented wife. Worth noting, in addition to the cast perfectly in part, the extraordinary work of direction by Jeff Nichols and the photography by Adam Stone, vivid in the scenes of daily life and dark in those of the storm. There are several possible interpretations of the film. Some will see a metaphor for the crisis that is gripping the world, others will see the fear of dying, others will associate Curtis's bunker with the post-9/11 era, and others will see nothing so profound and will be shocked by the destruction of the life of an ordinary man. One thing is certain: some moments of the film will remain etched in the viewer's memory for the intensity and emotion, like the long scene in the bunker where compassionate Samantha tries to get him to hand over the key and a few moments later, the situation reversed in the wonderful, terrifying finale. In short, a film that gives emotions, that moves, that scares, that will make you angry and tender at the same time but above all that will not leave you indifferent.