Written by Markus Robinson, Edited by Nicole I. Ashland
Markus Rating: 3 out of 5 Stars (borderline 3 ½ Stars)
Rated NC-17 for some explicit sexual content
It is a shame that I didn’t like this movie more than I did. OK, now that I got that awful yet unavoidable joke out of my system, on to my review. Directed and co-written by the awesomely named British writer/director Steve McQueen (Hunger), “Shame” is the uncensored slice of life story of a successful businessman named Brandon, played with force by Michael Fassbender (X-Men: First Class), conducting his everyday life, while dealing with an intense sexual addiction; which includes visiting porn sites on the daily, paying for prostitutes nightly and sleeping with random girls he meets at bars to fill his unquenchable thirst for satisfaction. McQueen creates a very dark overtone in a successful attempt at showing how sexual addiction is very real and ruins people’s lives, as would any other addiction. But while the synopsis of this film sets the audience up for something bold and gritty, some of the directorial as well as the script’s plot-point choices (a storyline with his sister that is artlessly unnecessary) only work to awkwardly slow down a setup, which had so much more potential and a protagonist who may be one of the most mesmerizing and well acted characters of the year. In the end “Shame” serves to be the hardest film I have had to review in quite some time, because while there is some brilliant work here, there is also an equal amount of questionable choices from McQueen, that has all together forced my overall consensus (walking away from this film) to be (as unpopular as this may sound) only a slight recommendation for this OVERALL slightly above average film.
Side Note: This probably goes without saying but “Shame” does earn its NC-17 rating, with its very necessarily aggressive sexual content and its constant full frontal (and very nonchalant) nudity from Fassbender, Carey Mulligan (An Education)and a slew of acting prostitutes and female interests. As well as sexual acts of many differing varieties, which some audiences may find visually uncomfortable to sit through, but that may be point; watching someone indulge in their addiction is not supposed to be comfortable to watch.
Moments of directorial brilliance: Between the intense moments of intercourse (mostly in the, no pun intended, climax of the movie) to the mundane day to day minutiae of an addict, McQueen shows off his storytelling ability. There are even semblances of perfect scenes strewn about “Shame”, most notably one that involves a close-up of Fassbender’s face as the Brandon character engages in a ménage a trois, reaching an emotionally gratifying, yet self-loathing climax. The expression on his face is part man having an orgasm and part man having an emotional breakdown, and by all accounts Fassbender, in conjunction with an intensely (in your face) thought provoking shot by McQueen, makes it clear that Brandon is having both. Very emotionally driven scenes, such as this one, demonstrates McQueen’s true talent as he encapsulates the entire thesis of his story, about a man tragically suffering from a self-destructive disease, compulsion and an addiction, into one multi-layered moment.
Moments of directorial failure: While “Shame” centers around Brandon the sex addict, a lot of attention is given to a subplot featuring his ne’er-do-well nomadic slut of a sister named Sissy, played almost annoyingly by Mulligan (but maybe that is simply how her character was written, so I don’t really blame her), which distracts far too much from the very interesting initial storyline. A lot of her scenes come off as one big unnecessary thematic element. For instance, in one scene (another close up in fact) shows the Sissy character singing a somber rendition of “New York, New York” for more than five minutes. This sequence is supposed to evoke a strong emotional response from the audience, and it does have that effect for the first minute, but then becomes rather tedious as if McQueen had mistakenly forgotten to edit this clip post-production. Other scenes involving her nude interactions with her brother are awkward head scratchers at best. In fact, Mulligan’s entire character seemed very much forcefully inserted into large portions of the script, if only to build on a flimsy subplot that this reviewer felt no attachment to. My thoughts with this Sissy character will forever bring forth the same question of Steve McQueen: If you had a potentially fascinating storyline with Fassbenders character alone, why the need to add in another damaged character on top of it all? And while some McQueen apologists may say that the Sissy storyline was only written in to show the dynamic between the siblings, aka while they lived in different financial classes, they both suffered similar emotional baggage, I find that argument flawed when thinking of the satisfying storyline which could have been, without that particular female character. While there are other flaws in this film that work to distract and slow “Shame” down, this particular aspect is clearly the most distractingly egregious.
Fassbender’s award worthy work: Beginning the film with a quiet but controlled performance, Fassbender’s slow burn acting style peaks during the rising conflict with a one of the most powerful performances of the year! And while the situations are laid out in the script by McQueen, what Fassbender does with these scenes takes “Shame” to a whole other level. He literally breaks down before our eyes, displaying an intricate rainbow of emotions befitting the highest caliber of seasoned (award winning) actor. When he is seen making the slightest eye contact with a married woman on the subway, be plays it like a wolf stalking his pray, and once upon it, losing all self control. And when Brandon’s secret life begins to bleed over to his working facade, Fassbender’s every so slight facial expressions elicit the dread, monumental social embarrassment and self-disgust the character holds inside. Needless to say, the problems I have with this film had nothing to do with Fassbender’s stellar performance.
Final Thought: While this is a uniquely raw look at an addiction which is looked upon as something of a joke in the world of Entertainment Tonight and TMZ, and while there are some shades of brilliant filmmaking from McQueen and the breakout male performance of the year from Fassbender (rivaled only by Ryan Gosling in “Drive”) which is so emotionally draining (in a great way) that it may end up winning him an Oscar for best lead performance, there was an equal amount in “Shame” that did not work for me. “Shame” is a film that may stay with you for a while due to its graphic nature and one tour de force performance, but falls just short of McQueen’s intended emotional impact. Some may love this movie, while others (like me) will be left wishing that they would have liked this movie more, but whichever category you find yourself in, “Shame” is a film worth checking out for Fassbender’s performance alone.