Abri

For his debut as a writer/director Paul Bettany did a good job with this drama. Shelter, where Jennifer Connelly as one of the two main characters is also the wife of Paul Bettany, tells the two different stories of a couple of homeless people. Jennifer Connelly (as Hannah) and Anthony Mackie (Tahir) are both living on the streets and that because of different reasons and they both cope differently with their unfortunate position. They both try to help the other getting away from the street life. It's a nice story, with alot of emotions and images that reflect perfectly how some homeless people are living daily. The acting and filming are both good, with an interesting and sometimes sad story.

"Shelter" is remarkable piece of work that stared two great actors that performed brilliantly. I like Anthony Mackie and I love Jennifer Connelly. Both of them were great in this film. This is a heart breaking story of two homeless people that cross paths and fall in love and try to survive homeless in the streets. Their lives and their stories of how they got there are brought out dramatically in this film. This film does start out a little slow but then it picks up and goes on a dramatically intense journey. The way the plot unfolds in this film is simple but in a good story like this that's all that's needed. I learned that this is Paul Bettany's directorial debut. If this is, all I can say is wow! This film is set up perfectly and the writing is great. I wanted to see this film from the time I saw the trailer because I knew with Anthony Mackie and Jennifer Connelly that this film was going to be a good one. This film is a must see and I think anyone who loves drama and good chemistry between two wonderful actors should see this film.

Review: What an emotional movie! The acting from Jennifer Connelly, who plays Hannah and Anthony Mackie, Tahir, is superb and the deep story, about 2 homeless, lost souls who fall in love and struggle to live on the streets of New York, is brilliant. When Tahir becomes ill during a brutal winter, Hannah tries her hardest to find accommodation for them both, and she goes to the extreme to buy medication for Tahir. These 2 characters, really came from 2 different world's but when they join forces to find money, food and accommodation, there emotional journey goes from one extreme to another. The chemistry between Tahir and Hannah is excellent and very believable and the ending did bring a tear to my eye. Hannah is a heroin addict, who sadly lost her husband to a terrorist attack and she left her little boy with her father while she lives on the streets, finding ways to fund her habit. Tahir is a African immigrant who lives in America illegally and lost his wife and young boy, in a brutal way, in Africa. There are some different elements to the plot, which made this film quite enjoyable and the fact that many people are losing there houses and have to use food banks and shelter to live nowadays, gives this movie a truthful look into the extent that the homeless have to go to, just to make it through one day to the next. Anyway, I enjoyed this emotional drama but it's a shame that it didn't get the big distribution treatment that it deserved. Enjoyable!

Round-Up: This is the first movie, written and directed by Paul Bettany, 44, whose known for acting in some top class movies. He was brilliant in A Knights Tale and A Beautiful Mind in 2001 and quite scary as Silas in the Da Vinci Code. His voice became worldwide known when he starred in Iron Man as Jarvis and when he changed into human form in Avengers: Age of Ultron, it set a path for yet another superhero. For his directional debut, he really did pick a deep subject, which will touch many hearts and he done a great job by getting the most out of the top class actors. 

I recommend this movie to people who are into their dramas starring Jennifer Connelly, Anthony Mackie and Bruce Altman. 7/10

I decided to sit down and watch "Shelter" solely because I noticed that Jennifer Connelly was in it, and I had no idea what the movie was about and had not heard about it prior to finding it on Netflix.

The story was a rather beautiful and heartfelt story, albeit a somewhat predictable one for sure.

What made the movie work was the acting performances by both Anthony Mackie and Jennifer Connelly. Man, was I impressed with the performance that Jennifer Connelly put on in this movie, and I dare say that this was actually one of her best performances in a long time easily matching the performance of "Requiem for a Dream".

"Shelter" is definitely well worth taking the time and effort to sit down and watch. And I will say that it actually does shed some light onto a world that I assume most of us just walk straight past without even throwing a second glance. So a big thumbs up to director and writer Paul Bettany for his achievement with this movie.

If you haven't already seen "Shelter", then I can only strongly recommend that you take the time to do so, if you have the chance. Because this is definitely a movie that will stick with you.

Sometimes you watch a movie and the material presented is so realistic, so filled with gravity and so sad that you almost walk away. You exclaim, 'What a movie!' but it's so real that you are disturbed and it crosses the line, no longer interest and entertainment but something you find too graphic to watch. This, for me, usually happens with 'better' horror movies. But it happened with this one. Recently I saw Incendies. The experience here is almost the same. At its heart it is a beautiful love story, but when it showed how vulnerable the protagonists were it was shocking on several levels, not least because previously one imagined these were two of the strongest people in the world and more than capable to deal with contingencies. I say on several levels, for example, the efforts of the State also come into focus, and it's odd because actually the State here is seen in a positive light. Shelter is beautifully filmed, directed, edited and acted. I got through to the end, but I was deeply moved, and just a tad unsettled.