'Shame'

I must have really, really liked Steve McQueen's 'Shame' for having seen it twice in cinemas in the space of 2 days. I anticipated it so highly, I went to the first screening I could go to on its day of release, on my own with only a few (traumatized) OAP's in the cinema. I found it earth-shattering- I wasn't sure whether it was for sheer artistic emotion or sexual excitement over Fassbender's full frontal shots. I was confused by the negative reviews and echoes from French pals (it came out much much earlier in france). I went back to the cinema 48 hours later with a friend to 'make sure why' I had been so moved the first time round. I was further convinced that this was one of the best I've seen in the last year. Thought provoking and devastating.

A lot has been said on the subject of sex addiction in recent years...  We know it's now being treated in rehabs just like drug and alcohol dependency. 'Shame' doesn't show the journey of recovery of Irish New Yorker Brandon, the sex addict portrayed by  Fassbender. Just snapshots of a life devoted to anonymous sex, live sex chats, wanks in the office bathrooms and violent porn, facilitated by our modern world and the adult playground New York appears to be. We know nothing of the nature of his job, or his personal tastes and his flat is sterile, devoid of any personality. On the outside he's a fully functioning member of society - he's successful at work, handsome, confident.

His equally wounded sister Sissy (played wonderfully by Carey Mulligan) barges into his life (naked) and Brandon falls into confusion and resentment. It becomes clear their relationship to each other, and others is not ordinary.... The dark past of theirs is hinted at but we never know what happened to scar them so deeply.

'Shame' was pretty close to perfection visually.  No one can say the shots weren't composed beautifully and precisely (after all McQueen started out  in visual arts). There was a lot of symmetry in the scenes. I really could watch it over and over again. Maybe leave it on in the background.

Like all addicts he will need to hit rock bottom to consider recovery. Maybe his rock bottom is at the culmination of a sex 'bender', during a beautifully shot threesome. We see his face in a great close-up as he's having an orgasm. So full of distress... 

Sex there is filmed and acted exactly how it should have been, showing the darkness of the sex he's having, without any human connection. No joy is being had anymore, a source of pleasure has turned into an insatiable need and a source of loneliness and self-loathing. Addiction is addiction - the fact it's an addiction to sex doesn't make the film sexy in any way (unless like me, you find Fasbender irresistible).

5/5