Take Shelter

Directed by Jeff Nichols

(R)

This “modestly scaled, character-based drama” could be “the most powerful American film” of the year, said Andrew O’Hehir in Salon.com. In a story that feels at first like an M. Night Shyamalan–style trapdoor-reality drama but proves to be more profound, Michael Shannon stars as a young husband experiencing terrifying apocalyptic visions. He believes he’s suffering a breakdown, and his shaky mental state threatens to cast his whole family off the lower rungs of American middle-class life. “Shannon understands, as few actors do,” that “madness and fear of losing control are not pretexts for acting-class histrionics,” said Peter Rainer in CSMonitor.com. “Many of his best effects are extraordinarily subtle,” because he intuitively appreciates “how terror can freeze you up.” As good as Shannon is, Jessica Chastain, as the disturbed man’s wife, may be even better, said David Edelstein in New York. Chastain has a dancer’s body that “physicalizes emotion.” She might just be the “most vivid actress to hit the screen in years—maybe decades.” And she’s just one of the reasons to catch this terrific film—“a pure distillation of portent.”

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