Shame Movie Review

"We're not bad people. We just come from a bad place."

-Sissy Sullivan 

Coming off my X-Men: Days of Future Past hype I remembered having this film on a queue of mine. I was so incredibly impressed by Michael Fassbender's performance that I found it to be the appropriate time to finally watch it. I knew what I was getting into to a certain extent with this film by the quick synopsis and it's rating of NC-17. This being said I didn't expect Shame to be as dark as it was. Directed by Steve McQueen most recently known his Oscar-winning film 12 Years A Slave, Shame took on a very different type of mood.

Fassbender played a man named Brandon living in New York City. Despite having a pretty severe sex addiction, living in the city made it easy for him to keep that life somewhat separate from his professional life. Even so, we would see him itching to go to the restroom in his office to masturbate. But he seems to have a handle, shaky as it may be, on his everyday life. Between finding random women, paying prostitutes, and lots of masturbation Brandon was able to keep his life under control. An interesting thing I noticed is that this film isn't very heavy on dialogue in fact there are many scenes where no words are spoken and that is where the score comes in. Which by the way I thought was great. The score really set the mood for a lot of the scenes along with Fassbender's performance.

In walks his sister Sissy, played by Carrie Mulligan, looking for a place to stay. Right away I could tell that their relationship was extremely strange when he unknowingly walks in on her showering and they continue on a conversation as if she wasn't butt naked. The NC-17 rating is also very prominent throughout the movie with the use of graphic nudity and practically soft-core porn sex scenes. It is soon obvious that allowing her to stay wasn't the best idea as she doesn't seem to be emotionally or mentally stable. They have this very strange chemistry where it's clear that they love each other but there is something broken between them.

McQueen's direction was so interesting for this film and I can say I enjoyed it. This was such an emotional performance from Fassbender and Mulligan and while they were both great, the focus is ultimately on Brandon. There were such beautiful scenes where you felt as if you were there with him. The emotion was just so raw and felt so real. It almost makes you feel uncomfortable when it seems like you're eavesdropping in on a conversation instead of watching people act. There were scenes that were so dramatic but you weren't even sure what was going through Brandon's head, you just knew that something wasn't right. It is a scary thing to think about sex running your life. Deciding what you do and when you do things and how you react in different situations. For Brandon everything leads back to sex and it's clear that this effects his relationships with everyone else. The real struggle I suppose is how he can continue living the life that he is so used while also having to be responsible for his adult sister. McQueen gives us a real dark look into humanity and does it in a very artistic and beautiful way. I give Shame a 7.5 out of 10 and have to say that Fassbender was rather impressive.