Summary
Sex addict and successful New Businessman, Brandon, has his life upended when his sister comes to stay with him and breaks his reserved and solitary lifestyle.
The Film
Alright. Steve McQueen is an amazing director. This film is very different from the two films I’ve seen of his, “Widows” and “12 Years a Slave,” and I have to say that I ‘enjoyed’ (certainly not the right word) this movie more than either of those which hang far more on a traditional narrative structure that “Shame.” This film is half character study and half tone poem where the tone is deep discomfort with who Michael Fassbender’s character, Brandon, is.
Shame isn’t a subject we see approached in film very often, at least not in such a focused way as here. The movie is absolutely relentless in showing us the life that Brandon lives. The way sex controls him even when he tries to fight it, how it interferes with his work, and his refusal to form personal attachments that would interfere or be hurt by his addiction.
This is all well and good in a film about addiction, shame, and people’s lack of understanding in the face of such an existence but everything is broken wide open for further exploration when Brandon’s sister Sissy (Carey Mulligan, “Drive”) drops in on his sparse apartment and claims the couch after cajoling Brandon into agreeing.
The pressure that Sissy brings into his life make the managing of his addiction and shame almost impossible. With his sister living with him, he can’t bring home women, she gets involved in his meager social excursions, and disrupts even his work life. Through it all we begin to see that just as Brandon has his addiction, shame, and coping strategies, so does Sissy. Hers seem more problematic than his at first because he has a great job and she struggles to make ends meet but we begin to see how mixed up both of their problems are with the other’s.
This dynamic between the two is one of the things that brings this movie up a notch. A film that shows how our private problems affect others in dramatic ways and our sense of shame can be a destructive force in our lives is something that I was utterly fascinated by as I am by that concept in life in general.
As a Christian, I was raised to see sin not just as a fault in myself that hurt me but as a communal problem for all people. My sins hurt everyone. When I don’t manage my own life well, others pay the price either by having to help me overcome something, having to endure me at my worst, or not being able to rely on me. “Shame” explores this idea from a place we seldom consider. When we learn to live in our shame and out of it we pull ourselves back from engaging with people and leave them to struggle alone for fear that they might learn about the darkness inside that we are ashamed of, whatever that may be.
This sort of parsing of the human psyche and heart are only possible because of some phenomenally understated but raw performances from Fassbender and Mulligan. Fassbender (“300”) is given the vast majority of the screen time but in many key scenes where what is being communicated is being shared without words both of them are able to encapsulate complicated emotions and motives to rest behind their eyes with furtive glances, steely scolds, and tear filled manipulations.
The cinematography, production design, and staging reveals a side of New York that I have rarely connected with in such a visceral way. The loneliness that wraps around Brandon as he rides the subway, comes into his workplace, and even has sex or pursues a woman is like its own character that rears its ugly head and silences him when he most needs to reach out.
This is by no means any easy watch and I would hardly recommend it to anyone who has any issue with portrayals of sex in film. It’s rough to be sure, but if you can handle the seriousness of the complicated situations, broken characters, and heavy themes then I think you will find yourself asking questions of yourself and how you handle your own shame days after you’ve returned this film to Netflix.
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