Review of Take Shelter (2011) by Dio S — 10 Mar 2017

This flick has a dark feel from start to finish- I happen to like dark movies - I'm just throwing that out there. Michael Shannon is brilliant. The portrayal of his character's mental illness and his efforts to seek treatment despite various barriers and stigma really resonated with me, since I am both a psychologist and a patient.

SPOILER ALERT - I feel like the movie totally went against itself in the final few minutes. They took a well done plot about mental illness, genetics, stress, navigating the insurance and mental health system, stigma, family conflict, etc. and flushed it down the toilet by showing (which I assumed to be reality) his dreams/hallucinations coming true. *Homer Simpson mocking voice* "Ooooh, he doesn't have mental illness, he is clairvoyant! A gift from Jeebus!" OK, I admit it's doubtful that "clairvoyant" is in Homer's vocabulary. I was disappointed in the ending because I feel it was a slap in the face to those experiencing mental illness, but I enjoyed the majority of it.