Center for Social Innovation Blog

This week I went to see the movie Take Shelter, written and directed by Jeff Nichols, starring Michael Shannon and Jessica Chastain. I wanted to see how mental illness was portrayed, as it is usually my experience that it is not portrayed with grace or dignity – which leaves me feeling rage, and a deep sorrowful ache of loneliness.

Take Shelter opens with the main character, Curtis, looking to the skies and hearing thunder. This image recurs throughout the film, along with a billowing cloud with an unworldly human face. Rain the color of oil falls onto his hands. Flocks of birds crisscross the sky in swooping migrations, at times hitting Curtis. Only Curtis experiences this. For some time, he is not aware that he is the only person having these experiences. People around him question his behavior.

Curtis has violent dreams in which his dog, a gentle dog, bites his arm. The next day his arm is sore all day. In his dreams his wife, threatens him with a knife and his business partner attacks him. With each dream, Curtis becomes more paranoid of the people who threaten him, but insists that nothing is wrong.

His solution is to build a storm shelter. No one understands what Curtis is doing, including his deaf daughter. There is a storm going on in his mind and he is seeking shelter either from himself or from the storm. Perhaps he is the storm?

Curtis visits his mother, who was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia when he was a child. He asks her when her symptoms appeared and if she had dreams. When she says she did not have dreams, Curtis recedes into denial about his state of mind and continues to build the shelter.

Deep down he knows that all is not well. He sees the family doctor, who refers him to a psychiatrist, but the psychiatrist is located far away – a reality for many who live in rural areas. Instead, he sees a counselor. He explains how his mother just disappeared one day. It reinforces his need to avoid abandoning his own family.

A hulk of a man, his grip on his mind is fragile. Hiding his experiences from his wife in order to protect her only causes more conflict. He is fired from his job, and at a Lions Club meeting, things unravel. He is challenged by his best friend, asked to leave, and loses control of his emotions after being taunted and told he is crazy.

At this point in the film, I felt myself deflate. Here is the scene where the masses assault the misunderstood, a man who is trying to work things out, and do the right thing but is trapped by an illness he cannot escape. How sad, and how trite for the crowd to bully him. But then his wife gently guides him out. As they leave, a storm of immense proportions blows in. The storm could be seen as the metaphor for his life, the real storm that has been building, unmanageable chaos.

He takes his family to the storm shelter and they are safe. It is dark, quiet, and dry. But in the morning Curtis must face the moment of truth. The storm is over. His wife and daughter want to leave, but he insists it is not over. He reluctantly he gives the key to his wife. She refuses to open the door, telling him that he must open the door. Slowly, fearfully, he climbs the stair to open the door.

Outside, the day is clear, offering him passage to something new, with the knowledge that now that this storm is over, they still will face many more challenges with his illness.

The film closes with Curtis and his wife in the psychiatrist’s office. He is given the option of going to a psychiatric hospital. He is dismayed, responding, “You mean away from my family?” This moment is indicative of how important family and social support are for recovery. Yet like in life, the movie shows that treatment requires Curtis leave his primary source of support just as his mother was forced to.

The film ends before we learn what he decides, but the final scene offers insight into the many frustrations that people who live with mental illness face when presented with limited options, or no options at all. There is often little consistent shelter from mental illness.

Filed under: Mental Illness |