"Take Shelter" spends an hour and 59 minutes showing the struggle of a paranoid man to return to reality with the help of his wife and seems like a sensitive explication of mental illness, only to throw it all away in the last minute. Jessica Chastain manages the role of loving but lied-to and frustrated wife brilliantly, though her character may seem much too good and patient to be humanly possible. She and Shannon manage to show the excruciating pain of real relationships burdened with mental illness. But instead of an independent film with real integrity, "Take Shelter" becomes a cheap Hollywood-wannabe. Rarely have I felt so betrayed by a film. Phil Steele
Review of Take Shelter
