Take Shelter (2011) - Free on Xfinity

Utnayan

Utnayan

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I watched a very good movie last night that caught me by surprise. Here is the premise:

"Plagued by a series of apocalyptic visions, a young husband and father questions whether to shelter his family from a coming storm, or from himself."

I do not want to give too much away, but I thought it is a must see if you are bored looking for a movie. Very interesting and creative premise.
 
Slaythe

Slaythe

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Great performance by Michael Shannon in this one (big surprise). It's been brought up in some threads in the past. I know some people didn't love the ending. I think the film is great all around. Great special effects too for a movie not really based around that.
 
Utnayan

Utnayan

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Slaythe_sl said:
Great performance by Michael Shannon in this one (big surprise). It's been brought up in some threads in the past. I know some people didn't love the ending. I think the film is great all around. Great special effects too for a movie not really based around that.
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Yeah the way they shot the camera angles for the special effects was also awesome. For instance in the end,
When the real storm is coming while they are on the beach, and you can see the storm in the reflection of the sliding glass doors/window - before the wife realizes he wasn't nuts after all
I thought was very well done.

Michael Shannon is becoming one of my all time favorite actors. Just fantastic performances in Iceman, This movie, and as General Zod. I am REALLY looking forward to seeing him in Elvis Vs Nixon where he plays Elvis Presley.
 
Slaythe

Slaythe

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I take the ending to be another hallucination just this time he's not alone, with his family there to acknowledge his schizophrenia and help him through it. The other interpretation, that in reality he is truly some prophet, just seems kind of silly to me.

He's definitely great in the film either way though.
 
Utnayan

Utnayan

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Slaythe_sl said:
I take the ending to be another hallucination just this time he's not alone, with his family there to acknowledge his schizophrenia and help him through it. The other interpretation, that in reality he is truly some prophet, just seems kind of silly to me.

He's definitely great in the film either way though.
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Or a 3rd way too.

He isn't a prophet and is just one of many who have an ability to see things others can't, and it is labled a mental illness. Some know how to handle it, others don't. I do not really buy the first one because his wife is actively trying to separate him from the thoughts that are consuming him - taking him to the beach to get away from the Shelter as advised by the shrink... And leading up to that she had been helping him by saying in order to keep his family he needed to get over the hurdle himself by opening the shelter door after the storm, seek help, are you going to hurt us, etc. So I think that final scene comes to the realization that he wasn't nuts, he can see things others can't, he can control it, and she was finally acknowledging that this time it was for real when he looked at her at the end wondering if this was just him. He Didn't believe his daughter at first staring at the storm because she could have easily inherited it and be going through the effects.
 
chaos

chaos

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My interpretation :
the storm at the end is his madness, a physical/hallucinatory representation of that. None of it was real other than the inevitability of his descent into crazy. I don't think there was anything comforting about the ending, like his family supporting him or whatever. More like the opposite, like the look of foreboding on his wife's face as she realized he was going to destroy their family with his insanity.

Fucking Michael Shannon. That guy gets a lot of credit for being a great actor, and it still isn't enough.
 
Utnayan

Utnayan

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chaos_sl said:
My interpretation :
the storm at the end is his madness, a physical/hallucinatory representation of that. None of it was real other than the inevitability of his descent into crazy. I don't think there was anything comforting about the ending, like his family supporting him or whatever. More like the opposite, like the look of foreboding on his wife's face as she realized he was going to destroy their family with his insanity.

Fucking Michael Shannon. That guy gets a lot of credit for being a great actor, and it still isn't enough.
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See, I would think that as well, but the following factors made me think otherwise:

When they were in the shelter and he didn't want to leave, she said he had to trust her, and also open the door for himself so he could see she was right. Basically saying that he is seeing things and if he ever wants to get over it, this is a first good step in realizing the things he sees/feels isn't real. Also, when he says the storm is still out there and he feels the door and says, "You can feel it. Come here and feel it" - his daughter pressed her hand against the door and felt nothing, and his wife the same - then she said he needed to open the door for his own good, in the hopes he realizes what he is feeling/hearing isn't really there. After that, he had trust in his wife. He will look to her for advice on if he is seeing something or if it is real. At the end of the movie, his daughter sees the storm first, not him. He then turns to his wife, and at first, I thought she was about to shake her head to confirm that he was again, indeed, seeing something that wasn't there. But, then she looked down and saw the orange/yellow rain water on her hand - she looked and also saw the storm, and was nodding to him stating, "What you are seeing is real" coupled with the look of horror on her face. This leads me to believe that what he was going through, while most definitely weird, was real at the end, and had confirmation that he wasn't as nuts as he originally thought he was.

Either way, hell of a movie because talking about the interpretations of the ending like this means it has to be good
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Enob

Enob

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I felt the ending was disappointing mainly because all interpretations have flaws and none of them end up as satisfying.
If it's anything supernatural (prophet) or unnatural (random giant oil storm), it's completely out of place in the movie in theme and tone. If the storm is an allegory for his mental illness (the interpretation I took from the film), the last scene is all just nonsense symbolism by the director and none of it actually happened to any of the characters. The only other option I see is that the final scene is entirely in his own mind in which case the director threw in an unreliable narrative that remains unresolved just to add ambiguity. Meh. Was still a good film.
 
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