‘Shelter’ REVIEW: Protection in Predictability
‘Shelter’ REVIEW: Protection in Predictability
Mason (Jason Statham) and Jesse (Bodhi Rae Breathnach) traversing a crowd | Still from IMDb
When it's the first couple of months of the year, you know Jason Statham is bound to show up doing what he does best: further exemplifying his action star status through beating people up in different fonts. Over the past decade, he has definitely put his work in with some fun, junky mid-budget thrillers that live and die on his charm alone, albeit on different scales of effectiveness. The two latest examples of which are his two collaborations with director David Ayer: the absurd The Beekeeper and the less effective but pulpy A Working Man. This time around, Statham is back to do his thing once more alongside fellow January cinema staple Ric Roman Waugh, who also helmed the recently released Greenland 2: Migration, for a more pared-back, for their standards, genre work. Shelter is an outing that feels quite accomplished and confident in its focus despite its very modest ambitions.
Shelter starts in a rather small-scale fashion. A reclusive, grizzled man (Statham) spends his days on an English island with his pet dog, residing in a small house near an old lighthouse, and given supplies by an old friend and her niece (Bodhi Rae Breathnach). When a freak typhoon strands the latter and kills the former, the man takes her under his care and, despite earlier tensions, grows a gradually deepening bond. But questions still linger among them: why is he hesitant to leave the island? Why does he not give his name? And why are several internal factions of a morally questionable national security department all willing to go after him, including an acquaintance with a particular axe to grind?
Roberta (Naomi Ackie) finding out the danger of who she’s looking for | Still from TMDb
The answers given to those inquisitions are as straightforward and frankly predictable when one is familiar with genre movie cliches, and the extent they register within the script is similarly well-worn and probably done better in many other films. The key observation here, though, is that these tropes aren't done badly per se. Hell, Waugh manages to steer the ship pretty sturdily thanks to an engaging, intimate focus on our two leads. It’s also propelled by Statham and Breathnach’s performances — one tortured yet thoughtful, with a lot done through his eyes; the other fragile yet youthfully indignant. When the plot shifts from the pseudo–mystery box approach of the first act into the carnage leading into the second, it easily avoids going off the rails. It helps, too, that the fights themselves are competently shot. While a bit underlit and quick on the edit, there remains a sturdy creativity in how Statham can dispatch the poor schmucks that go after him (which includes tasers and boulder traps, among other things) that gives it a nice oomph.
Don't get it all twisted though, since the severe ceiling Shelter doesn't fully break isn't its close affinity with action movie staples, but its inability to make use of them as something to build upon (see: last month's stylish and outrageously brutal Primate as an example of cliche as launchpad for visual expression, or even last year's The Beekeeper in its elevation of the vigilante premise into strands of goofiness). It's as po-faced in form as it is in script, which is both a plus in how much it devotes itself in the emotions of its cast as broad as they are without any ironic posturing, and a minus in how it never really goes deeper beyond archetypes (and it doesn't really reckon with the implications of a significant, yet pretty skeevy plot detail which it ironically has in common with another recently released "junkfood" thriller, but at least this one's not as directly insidious!).
Mason (Jason Statham) being forced to do what he does best | Still from TMDb
Still, there's comfort in familiarity that Shelter embodies in spades, like a quick grab from your local fast food joint: it isn't gourmet, but at least gives you your fix for cheap in spite of its lack of nutritional value. A well-executed actioner powered by a soulful Statham performance, it doesn't fail in what it does, which, as a film that doesn't go above, is sort of the way to go, especially if it's done with this surprising amount of reasonable patience.
Sometimes, you gotta just see someone kick ass for 100 minutes, and you know what, you could do worse in terms of escapism fare.
‘Shelter’ is now showing in Philippine cinemas.
