Rating summary

Movie		2.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		1.5
Overall		2.5

Gimme Shelter Blu-ray Movie Review

No rolling stones, plenty of moss.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman April 30, 2014

If you’ve come here in search of The Rolling Stones, you might in fact get a bit of a rock ‘n’ roll attitude (or perhaps at least a goth or punk one) in this particular Gimme Shelter, though very little of that vaunted Jagger swagger. Vanessa Hudgens actually does kind of maraud her way through the leading role in this well intentioned but ultimately hackneyed drama, but it’s less of Mick’s feline grace on display here than a kind of aggressive biker gang stance. Hudgens plays young teen Agnes Bailey, a troubled young girl who is planning something big as the film opens, something that seems incredibly important, maybe even something as drastic as suicide. The answer turns out to be considerably more mundane—Agnes is simply getting ready to shear her locks, perhaps in a defiant reclamation of her battered self image. It turns out Agnes is stuck in a highly dysfunctional home life with a harridan junkie mother ironically sharing the same first name with Mrs. Cleaver herself, June (Rosario Dawson). Agnes finagles her way from New York to New Jersey, ending up in the considerably more luxe environment of her estranged father, Tom Fitzpatrick (Brendan Fraser). Gimme Shelter never really fully explores the obviously roiling family dynamics at play here, and it may be one of several potentially troublesome flaws in a film that wants to deliver the feel good vibe even as it wallows in the story of an isolated and angry young urban girl.

Agnes’ convoluted back story might have provided Gimme Shelter with the foundation needed to provide the character’s obvious ache some ballast. Instead we get a rant of sizable if not epic proportions once Agnes attempts to matriculate into Tom’s tony suburban household and lets loose with a barrage of what she’s been through since Tom evidently abandoned her and June years ago. That particular plot point is never thoroughly examined, leaving a gaping hole at the center of the emotional drama. Instead we simply see this tough “Joisey” girl attempting to find some solace and a rather luxurious roof over her head in a family that doesn’t know quite what to do with her. Tom is feeling pangs of conscience, but his pretty wife Joanna (Stephanie Szostak) is less than thrilled to have this living example of Tom’s long ago former life staring sullenly at her every day, and the two young Fitzpatrick children find Agnes “smelly” and “weird”.

In the meantime Agnes announces she has taken the new name Apple, a decision which is explained in a truly ridiculous moment late in the film but which thankfully has nothing to do with Gwyneth Paltrow and/or Chris Martin. In yet another patent piece of pandering to the heartstrings, a moment of bad decision making delivers Apple straight to the hospital where she’s counseled by kindly chaplain Father McCarthy (James Earl Jones), the kind of priest who simply leaves a Bible within reach and trusts that the holy spirit will work its miracles. When it turns out that newly christened Apple is pregnant, Joanna finally flips her lid and insists on an abortion for the girl. When Apple can’t go through with it, she ends up at a halfway house run by stern but understanding Kathy (Ann Dowd). Apple of course does not let her defenses down very easily, and there’s much tension and conflict as she attempts to bond, however fitfully, with a bunch of other young women who are either pregnant or who have just recently given birth themselves.

Gimme Shelter ends up playing like a slightly rough around the edges Lifetime movie, and it comes replete with a Dove imprimatur indicating that it’s structured for maximum redemptive benefit. But that’s really what ails Gimme Shelter the most—it’s so intent on getting to saving grace that it wastes manifold opportunities to explore the purgatories the various characters are experiencing before getting to their salvation. The film does present a new side of Vanessa Hudgens, which is probably its most interesting aspect. While Hudgens glowers a bit too much rather than finding more interior truths to demonstrate, she does give Apple a suitably unstable combination of toughness and vulnerability. The unfortunate choice to have Apple’s spiritual transformation and emotional maturity go hand in hand with more “appropriate” hairstyles is perhaps only one indication of the shorthand that writer-director Ronald Krauss exploits on this project.

Despite the fact that much of Gimme Shelter plays out in a paint by numbers way, there’s no denying that several scenes do have at least a baseline level of emotional heft. There’s a lovely scene late in the film where Tom and Apple have a halting conversation after Apple shows Tom her new daughter. Here, finally, the film tries to address the question of what has been lurking as subtext throughout the entire film, namely Tom’s abandonment of Apple and what that did to her. Weirdly, Krauss opts to focus more on Tom’s predicament rather than Apple’s, but it at least shows that there is fodder here for some authentic emotion to peek through. Instead, Krauss opts for easy outs in a number of ways, including having Apple have at least the opportunity for a more comfortable life with her baby with Tom and his family, something that plays almost like the abandoned pregnant teen version of the “princess prostitute” in Pretty Woman. The fact that Krauss has Apple make a predictable (at least in the world of ersatz Lifetime movies) decision in another direction doesn’t erase the fact that there’s a subtle hint of a safety net surrounding this character, no matter what happens. And that’s ultimately the biggest issue with Gimme Shelter itself—it repeatedly plays things safe instead of taking real dramatic chances.

Gimme Shelter Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Gimme Shelter is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Lionsgate Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.35:1. According to the IMDb, this was shot on Super 16, and may I just start out by commenting how nice it is to see a relatively low budget film actually shot on film for a change. This transfer has the typically softer and somewhat grainy ambience of its format, and so will probably not be anyone's idea of "reference quality" video, but it does quite accurately reflect its source. The only major complaint some may have with the appearance here is the somewhat pallid saturation levels. While the almost absurdly crisp whites and beiges of the Fitzpatrick family manse pop quite nicely, often flesh tones are kind of curiously monochrome and there's no real vividness in terms of palette. Fine detail is very good to excellent, giving a visceral intensity to Apple's facial wounds (not to mention her piercings) as well as more mundane items like the weathered faux leather covering of McCarthy's Bible. There's appealing depth to the image, and while contrast isn't especially well defined, the film doesn't really suffer in the areas of shadow detail or resolution of the somewhat subdued and often similar tones in the palette.

Gimme Shelter Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Gimme Shelter's lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 mix isn't completely immersive, partially due to the perhaps commendable lack of ubiquitous source cues, but it does deliver excellent fidelity with occasionally nicely done surround moments. Some of the cacophony of the halfway house is really well rendered here, and two harrowing scenes out on freeways or highways also offer nuanced mixes. But the bulk of this film is front heavy dialogue. There's nothing exciting about that aspect, but it's presented here with clarity and no problems of any kind.

Gimme Shelter Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Making of Gimme Shelter (1080p; 12:43) has some okay interviews but is a pretty rote EPK.


• Deleted Scenes (1080p; 5:56) feature optional commentary by writer-director Ronald Krauss.

Gimme Shelter Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

There were several key moments in Gimme Shelter where I could sense a deeper, more involving effort than what ultimately ended up on screen. Hudgens is a bit mannered as Agnes/Apple, but she also demonstrates some appealing depth here that fans of her High School Musical persona may be surprised she has. But Ronald Krauss' screenplay indulges in too many tropes and way too much shorthand to ever make these characters compelling enough to really care about. This is especially true of Tom, a guy who seems compassionate, decent and rational—except that he has this deeply troubled, evidently illegitimate (even that is never really explained) teenage daughter. If Krauss had thought to look into these aspects at least a little more, it would have provided the audience with a more solid connection to their current predicaments. Hudgens fans may want to check this out, for others interested in some of the same plot points, notably foster care, I recommend watching Short Term 12.