One of the brilliant independent
film of the last year that doesn’t draw much attention compared to heavy
weight nominees in the festive season of awards this year. This is just second
film of writer-director Jeff Nichols collaborating with lesser popular but
effing brilliant Michael Shannon. Here is a film with begins, continues and
ends with apocalyptic thunderstorm and rain witnessed by it’s central
protagonist Curtis. He is a working class man earning his bread and butter from
drilling work for a company. He has nice little family of caring and loving
wife and a sweet but a mute daughter. He starts having restless nightmares in
form of hallucinatory dreams. The mental disorder soon turns into physical
panic with constant delusional visions of thunderstorm and lightening. He
consults a doctor and a counselor but it didn’t get much success. The man soon
starts building a tornado shelter in his backyard by taking a risky loan.
The film begins with slow pace,
builds a kind of intrigue that you expect from well made psychological thriller
but surprisingly ending up as a brilliant personal and psychological drama out
of it. Nichols cleverly weaves the disturbing past of protagonist and his
mother to seek the attention but it leads to altogether different trajectory in
the second half. It has academy nomination worthy act by Shannon .
With what a fine aplomb this man plays characters suffering from mental
disorder one after another! Worthy to mention is fine supported act by Jessica
Chastain, the actress of this year with other two well nuanced performances in
‘The Tree of Life’ and ‘The Help’.
I’m so desperate to catch hold of
the director-actor’s earlier critically acclaimed collaboration ‘Shotgun
Stories’ soon.
Ratings- 8/10
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