Watch Shelter For Free

Undescribable Perfection

A Masterpiece!

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

I found this on Netflix streaming. At the end is a very short dedication to a homeless couple who lived outside the Bettany and Connelly home.Set in New York, Anthony Mackie is Tahir, homeless and plays makeshift drums on the street to earn spending money, mostly for food. He is an undocumented immigrant from Nigeria and seems very nice and kind.Also homeless in the New York streets is Jennifer Connelly as Hannah, who also appears to be a drug addict. (She is very thin in this movie, making me wonder if she lost weight for the role.) Their lives intersect.One several days we see him sort of following her around, not sure why. When she confronts him he says it is because she has his jacket tied around her waist, and he wanted it back. He had just spent a short time locked up and much of his stuff was stolen while he was gone from his nighttime alley.So the two become friends of sorts, then later start to refer to each other as boyfriend-girlfriend. They seem to make a genuine connection.The movie is well-written and well-acted but is never a fun or entertaining movie. The topic is too bleak, homeless in New York during a winter. However I am glad I took the time to watch it.SPOILERS: Hannah's husband was killed and she left home, abandoning her young son, I believe in Dallas (the dialog was unclear), and he dad makes occasional trips to New York to try to find her. As the movie is ending we see her on a bus, presumably finally kicking her habit and going home to her son. Tahir, it turns out, had joined Boko Haram and finally realized that was wrong and sought to clean up his life in New York. He gets sick and dies, perhaps of pneumonia. Hannah wraps his body and straps it to a makeshift raft, sending it out into the Hudson.

This film moved me... or rather made me look at things a little differently I suppose. I normally give money to panhandlers, buy them a hot meal whenever I can. Where I live, homelessness is an issue that people don't concern themselves with as much as New York because the climate is warmer, and people generally survive easier I suppose. But this movie made me think about those individuals who are struggling in a deeper way.Shelter takes place over the course of a few seasons in New York city. A tough place to be, and even tougher if you're homeless. It's hard to get by, and there is no shortage of people who are willing to take advantage of you. We are introduced to two such individuals played aptly by Jennifer Connelly and Anthony Mackie. Two different lives that simply interact one day, and forever changes their paths. Both are on the street for different reasons, and both have their own demons to deal with. Their paths intertwine and they begin to show real promise, as a couple just down on their luck, just looking for and hoping for any real opportunity to dig themselves out of the hole they are in.What really sticks with you is how utterly believable the situations are. Most movies about homelessness, usually with a huge celebrity attached to it are much harder for me to believe, but with this cast and story it was so easy to fall into. Times are tough all over the world, and New York is probably more susceptible than most cities to find yourself in hard times and taken advantage of. I feel very grateful to not have been in any of the situations you witness in this film, but I promise you, it will make you think about those who are.An excellent first story from writer/director Paul Bettany.7/10

Avengers reunited! Anthony Mackie stars and Paul Bettany writes and directs – but this low-budget, lowdown indie couldn't be further from the world-saving antics of Falcon and Vision. It actually premiered in 2014, and has since been dismissed by many critics. Sure, it's overwrought. But despite some flaws this is a thought-provoking drama with little preaching.It's a story from the bottom rung of Maslow's Hierarchy. Mackie plays Nigerian immigrant Tahir, homeless in New York, whom we meet repenting for a terrible crime from his past. When his stuff is stolen he notices that Hannah (Jennifer Connolly) is wearing his jacket. He follows her. They meet. They love.Sounds simple because it is. It's a love story that happens to involve two people sleeping rough. It's episodic in structure because every day is an episode of pain, but it essentially follows the model of the classical Hollywood romance. Yet it does so largely without sugar-coating its characters' suffering.The film is utterly driven by these two main characters. Every scene is from one of their perspectives. And they carry it brilliantly. We've known Connolly is capable of this quality for some time, but it still comes as a surprise to see her emaciated frame so brutally possessed and conflicted. Mackie, meanwhile, is the revelation. He's a ubiquitous presence on our screens – forever a stable buddy character – but I've never seen him so soulful, so internal.Does it veer toward beautifully art-directed misery theatre at times? Yes it does. Occasionally it seems conspicuously designed to challenge expectations, more than coming across as a reflection of real life. But I figured that was the point: to find romance in desperation, like the lovers themselves. Also, there's the occasional clunky dialogue: "Never judge a book by its cover," Hannah tells one ignoramus.Notably, the "System" is not demonised. When Tahir is discharged from hospital into the winter cold, Hannah asks the doctor if Tahir can stay – but she's asking the impossible. Moments like this highlight the hurdles of a universal welfare structure that cannot bend to individual circumstances.As a test of empathy, Shelter makes you work hard. He's a mass-murdering African Muslim; she's a war widow who left her child to beg for heroin money. However bleak that sounds, the search for goodness is a consistent theme. We are the sum of all our deeds, not just our worst. Tahir and Hannah talk of God and death and cognitive dissonance like regular smart people. And they look out for each other in a way most regular people don't look out for them.Shelter is worth seeking out. It's a tough, harrowing watch, but far from a thankless or hopeless one.

This is Paul Bettany's debut as a director and a writer and what a debut. This movie captures one's attention from the very beginning. The movie has many twists and turns while telling a story about an ignored group of people in today's society. It plays on the emotions of the audience from high to low. Jennifer Connelly and Anthony Mackie display good screen chemistry and play off each other really well throughout the movie. Jennifer Connelly was really believable and this is perhaps her best role to date. Anthony Mackie is equally mesmerizing in his performance. This is a well written and directed movie with wonderful acting. I would recommend this as a must see.