93% Take Shelter

All Critics (107) | Top Critics (29) | Fresh (100) | Rotten (7)

Shannon wonderfully modulates Nichols' portrait of a man whose mind and life seem to unravel before our eyes.

There's a strong, unsettling sense of disease that runs through Take Shelter, the best drama of the year so far.

Shannon is astounding, playing a good man pushed to the brink of sanity, maybe beyond. He portrays a sense of quiet desperation -- a feeling recognizable to many.

A work of hushed and persuasive emotional veracity.

The movies have long been mad about the onset of madness.

The chilling genius of "Take Shelter'' isn't that the threat is never specified but that it doesn't need to be.

Rod Serling would have been proud.

Nichols takes this 21st century fear of losing everything you have and makes it physical. It's a portrait of destructive behavior that is motivated by the purest of intentions: wanting to protect your family.

Regardless of how things play out, you'll leave the movie feeling Curtis' twisted worldview eating away at you.

This unsettling, hypnotic drama boasts a quietly powerful performance by Michael Shannon as Curtis, a man succumbing to apocalyptic visions.

Nichols builds unease from small, repeated details, and he has a terrific asset in Shannon: No modern actor seems as likely to snap and explode.

As a portrait of a man on the verge of losing everything, Shannon is remarkable. His stoicism feels environmental, rendering his withdrawal naturalistic rather than manufactured.

On rare occasions, a movie comes along that does genuine honor to Alfred Hitchcock. Take Shelter is such a movie. It could be subtitled "Take Shelter with Hitch."

(Director) Nichols creates the kind of quiet malevolence that Roman Polanski used to excel at.

Take Shelter is a deeply unsettling movie.

Michael Shannon's spectacular performance grounds Take Shelter with a haunting realism.

Are his dreams a sign of things to come or are they simply the creation of an individual who is teetering on the brink of insanity?

In an era of empty entertainments, "Take Shelter" is built to last.

Life is a double-edged sword. Be careful how you hold it.

Powerfully emotional and extremely tense, this is an impressively directed and superbly written drama with a riveting central performance from Michael Shannon.

Take Shelter is paced slowly and deliberately, which is necessary to make believable whatever is tormenting Curtis.

Those who've never understood [anxiety] could do to see Take Shelter as a total immersion virtual reality experience.

With that frowning face - including a right eye that looks sleepy and a left one that looks crazed - Michael Shannon could play Jekyll and Hyde at the same exact time.

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Source: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/take_shelter/

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