Shame (2011)

Brilliant and touching

Very interesting film. Was caught on the premise when seeing the trailer but unsure as to what the outcome would be for the showing. As it turns out, it was a very good film.

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

I hated this movie the first time I saw it. I found it disturbing and pointless. But after seeing Fassbender's other projects, like Frank and Prometheus, I felt like I had to revisit this movie again. And, oh boy, did I find another layer of this movie. Look at it from the perspective of a struggle from an addict, and you'd appreciate this movie a lot. Can you see his frustration? His struggle? The conflicts inside him? It's amazing how an actor (a goofy one, actually) can bring all of these through an acting. And it's amazing that he cared enough to create a movie about sex addiction to make people aware of this.

Steve McQueen made his debut with Hunger, which held up a microscope to the hunger strikes of Bobby Sands and IRA co, and made political protest into exquisite martyrdom. Faeces was smeared onto walls in mesmerising, concentric circles. Urine trickled out from under doors like a cascade, in an almost silent, unblinking long take. Never had starvation been given such serene treatment. The decay of Fassbender in that film was purely physical, a pivotal political icon reduced to a withering shell. And to a lesser extent, Shame is also guilty of that touch of extra elegance. The beginning and end of the film is bookmarked by Harry Escott's haunting soundtrack, which sounds as if it was personally in mourning. Yet in the meat of the story, as Brandon's addiction and life unravel, it is a classical accompaniment that smothers the most visceral moments. His insides are churning, his mind running a million miles as he listens to his sister having sex with another man. He is aroused by this, and ashamed by this arousal. He must leave, and pours his frustrations into sprinting around the block instead. But what should be as aggressive as his mindless thrusting is watered down by a tinkling piano, and a heavy moment is made lightweight. Fassbender, to his credit, is fully committed to scrubbing the film clean of any sexual enticement. On any other day he might be a winter wear model himself, with those piercing eyes and windswept hair, but the numerous sexual conquests dangled in front of him only provide brief respite. The editing makes sure of that, cutting to and away from murky street trysts with hardly a moment to even orient the viewer, let alone allow them to savour it. Early on the camera caresses coworker Marianne, and she returns the favour as they struggle between the sheets, tenderly running her hands over his face and scalp, drinking in his gaze. But Brandon is unable to process intimacy like this, having scarcely been this close with his sister let alone an acquaintance, and his body rejects the idea. That scene builds upon an earlier one which lays out the attraction as a mutual, but also purely physical. The dinner date is a masterpiece of timing and body language, of nervous chuckles and furtive glances. Their dialogue dribbles from opening small talk to a quietly desperate attempt to find any semblance of similarity, to no avail. If she had a cat, he'd have a dog, and her final goodbye expresses a sentiment he is all too familiar with. He sees dating as a means to an end, and sex as the drip that allows him to last until the next encounter. Brandon presents himself as sleek and successful, his apartment a sterile front to hide his degeneracy. Hurricane Sissy arrives to threaten that image, and with her returns a backlog of traumas thought to have been hidden away. When he hears her moaning pleasurably in the other room he spews vitriol and venom, but some of that anger is directed at himself and his inability to experience the same. When they hurl spit and insults at each other Brandon must will himself to not make the wrong move; he doesn't know whether to hit her or bend her over. He all but straddles her after she catches him masturbating, and her laughter is like a slap to the face of his denial. Mulligan is Fassbender's antithesis. While he conceals and festers she doggedly pursues, never minding the fact that her past has left her ill-equipped to stabilise and find peace. McQueen offers her the film's most audacious moment, a near five minute unbroken closeup of a performance in which she bares her soul, practically pleading for an inkling of hope, begging the city of lights to respond, and seemingly awakening a part of Brandon that has been long buried. That McQueen immediately follows this tenderness with a humiliating sucker punch is a testament to his daring. It is as close to a human being as Brandon has been for years, and now she is in bed with another man. He returns to staring at strangers' wedding rings. It is in the climax of the film that both brother and sister willingly throw themselves into oblivion, having once again decided that the scars they bear are too great to be overcome. Brandon's vice is characteristically showy; not one or two but three lovers, including a man, tangled in an embrace of frozen ecstasy. But 'lovers' must be the wrong word. Brandon has had sex too many times, but has love ever been the focus of them? Over the shuddering bodies is a line so simple and sparse that it rings truer than any of McQueen's flourishes. The confession is what breaks the cycle. There is urgency in his step. There is care for another human being. There is an acknowledgment of grief, and perhaps even change.

Straight to the point. Drama of life possible when you stay alone. The movie as a movie is not so great but the story is so hard and so powerful that it's just amazing. I would not rate it that much high but as I am experiencing the same story in my life I can relate so much. Sadly my life is also turning to be similar to Brandon. Still not there of course but on the way. Unbelievable moment to watch this movie...S deeply touched. Who doesn't have this problems he can't understand this movie and would think about it as a sex movie and perversion but it's a life story very hard to tell about and people tend to close out and keep it for themselves. Also if you can't find a life partner your life can also go in this direction.

Not the Ingmar Bergman classic of the same title, this contemporary British drama follows a young man who begins to reevaluate his obsession with sex and pornography when his sister moves in and begins to date his even more sexually depraved boss. In a performance consisting more of glances and stares than real dialogue, Michael Fassbender does well in the lead role as he wrestles with his conflicted emotions regarding his new home life. The title is especially interesting to consider along these regards; is the presence of his sister (and the knowledge of what his boss is doing with her) the very first thing in his life that has ever caused him to feel ashamed of his sexually active lifestyle? Intriguing as all this is, the film never tackles such ideas in much depth, not really exploring whether or not one should be ashamed of one's sexuality and/or the role of societal expectations in how open one is with one's sexuality. Much visible tension between Fassbender and Carey Mulligan (as his sister) sadly goes unexplored too with only the slightest hints of abusive childhoods and a possible incestuous past between them. And yet, with Fassbender in such good form with his longing stares (especially on the train near the end) conveying so much, this is an easy film to appreciate for the bits and pieces that do work. Harry Escott's moody music score is a particularly commendable touch.