Nothing to be a-Shamed About

In the follow up to his critically acclaimed Hunger, Steve McQueen re-emerges with a film which is laced with intensity and insight.  Shame is an unnerving study into the taboo world of sex addiction and the self-loathing that so often accompanies it.  Michael Fassbender puts in a gritty performance as the high-achieving Brandon, whose everyday life is in the grip of an all-consuming sexual dependence.  As a slave to his own sex drive he is dominated by a desire to constantly fulfil his erotic desires, even going so far as to jeopardise his job by spending hours at work trawling porn sites.  His hard drive becomes so riddled with viruses that when it is returned his boss recites a list of lewd sexual videos they found stored on it…a moment of unexpected humour saves Brandon’s job but he begins to see how thin the line he is walking on is. 

The arrival of Brandon’s marginal and troubled sister, Cissy, disrupts his ritual and he can no longer indulge in marathon masturbation sessions and meaningless one night stands.  Like a junkie who can’t get a hit he becomes erratic and anxious.  He attempts to stave off the urges to get what can only be described as a fix, and begins habitual home clean outs, throwing away huge bin bags of hardcore porn and sex paraphernalia.  Ultimately, he is thrown into the grip of deep loneliness and depression and embarks upon an epic binge followed by deep remorse.  Unlike other addictions such as alcohol and gambling, sex addiction is not recognised as a disease and Shame appears to be McQueen’s proposal for why it should be.  Brandon is crippled by his constant craving and Fassbender’s relentless agitation demonstrates clearly how his character’s mind is always elsewhere.  

While McQueen demonstrates with great directorial ease how difficult the life of a male sex addict is, Cissy’s character is underdeveloped.  We are made aware that she too has trouble maintaining relationships and she exhibits promiscuous behaviour (although perhaps no more than an average woman of this day and age).  It is not made clear whether she herself is a nymphomaniac or simply on a path to self-destruction.  A brief fling with Brandon’s married boss follows an almost painful nightclub scene where Mulligan attempts a sultry rendition of ‘New York, New York’ only to produce a piece of singing not even worthy of a bad X-Factor audition.  The only decent thing to come out of this car crash scene is the split second of vulnerability we catch from Brandon, only for him to once again to retreat into himself.  His inability to express emotion and allow others in is a major feature of his disorder and the most damaging factor he faces when trying to build a meaningful relationship.  He is unable to engage during sex with a woman he respects and could possibly care for because she is no longer simply an object of sexual desire.

Shame is stylishly filmed, the serious subject matter one that has never been touched on before, with moments of real world humour peeking through at least expected moments.  We require no explanation of how the brother and sister duo have found themselves in such unfortunate frames of mind, although Cissy hints at the root of the problem as she explains ‘We’re not bad people.  We just come from a bad place’.  Like every addict does they inevitably hit rock bottom, but what remains to be seen is whether the pair can, or cannot recover.  The film could not be accompanied by a more complimentary score, harrowing and strangely sad, a musical embodiment of Brandon’s psyche.  Five stars.