Shelter
Jason Statham plays an ex-Royal Marine (again) in a more than serviceable thriller set largely in Scotland.
Orphans unite: Jason Statham
Image courtesy of Black Bear Pictures.
by JAMES CAMERON-WILSON
One really can’t judge Jason Statham movies by the usual metric. The Stath should have his own scale. The ingredients remain the same, but sometimes there’s a better chef in the kitchen. Here, he plays a lighthouse keeper on a deserted island in the Outer Hebrides. A man of few words, his only company is an attentive Alsatian and a constant stock of hard liquor. Periodically, a trawler stops by and a 12-year-old girl rows to the shore with a crate of supplies. Off her own back, she adds a neatly wrapped present (with a bow), which she places on top of the provisions. Not being the most courteous of loners, the man – let’s call him Michael Mason – just kicks the gift aside without even looking at it. Then, one fateful day, the girl – let’s call her Jessie – has had enough of Mason’s rudeness and confronts him. In no uncertain terms, Mason tells Jessie where she can get off and slams the door in her face.
Michael Mason lives off the grid, sleeps in his clothes (and his omnipresent woolly hat) and for entertainment plays chess with himself. For conversation, he will occasionally stare at his faithful hound and ask, “what are you looking at?” OK, we’re intrigued. But the opening scenes do not bode well, so we’ll have to bide our time.
Then, one fateful day, a storm whips up and Jessie’s rowing boat is overturned, throwing her into the churning depths below. Minutes later, Mason is dragging her unconscious body to the surface and we know that his life will never be the same again. Whether he likes it or not, Jessie is a part of the outside world and the outside world wants Mason deactivated…
What we know from having sat through countless identikit Statham movies is that Michael Mason used to be part of some military outfit and that he can handle himself. And, whatever the outside world says about him, he is one of the good guys. There will be a ruthless, doughty assassin waiting in the wings, a corrupt government official and old friends who will give their right arm to save Mason as soon as he steps out of the shadows. We’ve been there.
The difference with Shelter is that, unlike last year’s risible A Working Man (in which the Stath also played a former member of the Royal Marines), the action sequences are really rather good. As are the locations, with not only the bleak, picturesque setting of Stornoway providing an unfamiliar backdrop, but the London locations, too, feel fresh. However, it is Bodhi Rae Breathnach, who played Susanna in Hamnet, who brings an empathetic note to the proceedings, an orphan, like Mason, who gives the latter a reason to stay alive. There’s also good backup from Bill Nighy at his sleaziest, and a brief but telling cameo from Dame Harriet Walter as the prime minister. All of which combine to make Shelter a more than watchable, and sometimes even gripping, diversion.
Cast: Jason Statham, Bodhi Rae Breathnach, Naomi Ackie, Daniel Mays, Harriet Walter, Bill Nighy, Michael Shaeffer, Celine Buckens, Bally Gill, Bronson Webb.
Dir Ric Roman Waugh, Pro Jason Statham, John Friedberg, Brendon Boyea, Jon Berg and Greg Silverman, Screenplay Ward Parry, Ph Martin Ahlgren, Pro Des Tim Blake, Ed Matthew Newman, Music David Buckley, Costumes Suzie Harman, Sound Dror Mohar and Tomas Blazukas, Chess advisor Seamus Duffy.
Punch Palace Productions/Cinemachine/Stampede Ventures-Black Bear Pictures.
107 mins. UK/USA. 2026. UK and US Rel: 30 January 2026. Cert. 15.
