Shame
Sunshine Landmark, December 19, 2011
Movie #82 for 2011
Based on director and co-writer STEVE McQUEEN’s visual art and his first feature Hunger, I expected Shame to be repulsive, difficult and beautiful - potentially all at the same time. And it is.
Brandon (MICHAEL FASSBENDER, pictured, Jane Eyre, Hunger, X-Men: First Class) lives in New York and doesn’t believe in relationships. He does believe in empty sex though - and lots of it. This is no Ryan Gosling as a suave pick-up merchant in Crazy, Stupid, Love. This is a man addicted to sex, getting no pleasure out of anything at all and seeing the entire world through that lens. His sister, Sissy (CAREY MULLIGAN, Drive) strives to connect with him, but it’s a precarious, dangerous activity and she doesn’t get far.
The film makes no comment about Brandon’s addiction, just shows it for what it is: an all-consuming, emotionally disconnecting thing that keeps Brandon, an empathy-free zone, oblivious to his own self-destruction. His addiction turns the pleasure and titillation of sex into work-a-day drudgery he can barely get interested in. The sex in the film is graphic - although, somehow not gratuitous - and over time becomes as tedious, hollow and grubby as it is for Brandon.
In Shame, much of the shot composition and framing is very arch and many of the scenes are taken in one shot, allowing the actors room for play-quality intensity. This combination gives the film a kind of anxious tension, and it is the film’s strength. (The dialogue, however, is less well done, sold only by the excellent performances.)
The characters are repulsive, the subject matter is difficult, but holy crap is it beautiful.
