Shelter

by Mike McGranaghan

It’s an unwritten Hollywood rule that if you’re a big-screen action hero, you must eventually make a movie where you protect a kid. Arnold Schwarzenegger did it in Terminator 2, Liam Neeson did it in The Marksman, and Bruce Willis did it in Mercury Rising, to name just three examples. Jason Statham did it in 2012’s Safe, which was not very good, and does it again in Shelter, which is good. In fact, this is one of Statham’s most satisfying action movies because it’s got soul to match the violent mayhem.

He plays Mason, a guy who lives a solitary life inside an old lighthouse on a remote island in Scotland. A man in a boat intermittently drops off his young niece Jesse (Hamnet’s Bodhi Rae Breathnach) to leave supplies at his door. During a nasty storm, tragedy strikes, leaving the man dead and the girl stranded. Mason promises to help her, but his plans are interrupted when a vengeful government official (Bill Nighy) sends a team of assassins to kill him, thereby putting Jesse in danger.

Shelter incorporates elements that will be extremely familiar to fans of action cinema. Mason is, of course, a former highly trained soldier from a covert military program, thereby making him far more lethal than the average guy. There’s a whole angle about what he did to get a target put on his back; you will not be surprised it has to do with acting ethically when ordered to do the opposite. We even get the requisite agent (Naomi Ackie) who is determined to nab Mason, only to become suspicious of her higher-up.

Those cliches are notable without affecting the movie’s fun. Director Ric Roman Waugh (Angel Has Fallen) knows how to stage a thrilling action sequence, and there are several of them here. A scene where Mason takes down a horde of soldiers who storm the grounds outside his lighthouse mixes clever strategy with brutal violence, as does one where he fends off attackers in the middle of a crowded nightclub. Waugh also assembles a harrowing car chase through a Scottish forest, with cars dodging trees and being launched into the air as they hit bumps in the road. Shelter consistently provides the sort of high-octane action Statham fans expect.

Just as satisfying is the human drama. Sure, this is another movie where a tough guy softens up to a kid after spending time with them, but Statham gives a sincere performance that makes the trope believable. He shows tenderness in his scenes with Breathnach, playing Mason as a man who remains in touch with his heart, despite having been trained to ignore it. The actor’s young co-star impressively holds the screen opposite him, making Jesse a fully-formed character as opposed to a mere child-in-distress.

Nighy is a thoroughly credible villain, and although Ackie’s character is underdeveloped, she gives it her all. Together, this cast makes Shelter an action flick with roots. It scratches that itch for excitement while giving us two central characters whose bond sinks in at a deeper level.

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