TJE 7/19 - Shame (2011)

"Shame," according to Boxofficemojo, was the only film released in the US in 2011 with an NC-17 rating, and I'm glad that it was. The story concerns a man who is battling sex addiction, though the term is never used in the film. The NC-17 content is absolutely essential. However, I should warn that the graphic sexual activity that we see onscreen is not titillating, prurient, or anything that could be called sexy. Rather, the overwhelming mood of the film is one of isolation, alienation, and loneliness.

Brandon (Michael Fassbender) works in a Manhattan advertising firm. He is successful, handsome, and perpetually unattached. By his own admission, he has never had a relationship that lasted for more than four months, spending his nights with a succession of anonymous strangers and paid sex workers. His need for gratification is constant, but he remains emotionally uninvolved with the people around him. Then one day his younger sister Sissy (Carey Mulligan) arrives unannounced at his apartment. Her situation is unstable, and Brandon lets her stay, but the demands on his privacy severely hamper his sex life, and he's forced to struggle against the impulses he's long indulged. Awkwardly, he begins to look for alternatives to his solitary existence.

Director Steve McQueen is known for his long takes, and there are several employed here to good effect. The unblinking, sustained gaze ratchets up the tension, heightens the mood, and gives the performances more room to unfurl. And they're excellent. "Shame" is a character study, driven by work of its superb cast. Though the script by McQueen and Abi Morgan contains plenty of dialogue, there is very little proper exposition, and it takes a while to figure out what Sissy's relationship to Brandon is, and for the details of his addiction to emerge. We observe Brandon going through his usual routine at home and at work, riding the subway and jogging through empty streets, almost always alone. McQueen often places him on the edges of the frame, emphasizing his remoteness. Crop the widescreen frame to in some scenes, and he would totally disappear. One of the most vital elements here is the score by composer Harry Escott, supplemented with Bach piano pieces performed by Glenn Gould. The melancholia of the music completely saps away any pleasure that could be had from the sex scenes, rendering them clinical, empty, and cold.

2011 was a great year for Michael Fassbender, and of the four films he appeared in, "Shame" was the one that contained his best performance. It's surely the most fearless and revealing, not just because he spends a good portion of the screen time in the nude, but because of the intimacy and candidness of it. Initially Brandon's lifestyle is attractive, enviable even. Fassbender is charismatic enough that we can easily accept his ability to charm just about any woman into bed for a no-strings tumble. However, there's always an unspoken tension to every encounter, and it soon becomes apparent how little control he has over his sexual urges, and how precarious a situation he's come to. Fassbender embodies all the common paranoias toward sex, the fears of inadequacy, of rejection, of unforeseen consequences, and of course that the extent of his secret, perverse activities will be discovered. We watch him ignore and internalize the problems, until they overwhelm him. And nobody suffers an onscreen breakdown like Fassbender.

The only real relationship Brandon has is with his sister, and we learn very little about Sissy except that she is a musician who has achieved a small measure of success, she's in a troubled relationship, she has a history of self-harm, and she has nowhere else to go. Carey Mulligan's performance does the rest. McQueen devotes one of the longest scenes in the film to Brandon simply watching her sing "New York, New York" in a club, her face filling the screen. Initially it seems like a gimmick, and Mulligan's tremulous vocals are passable at best, but the effect is mesmerizing. She has the ability to suggest so much in the most offhand comments and gestures, and in one of her best scenes we don't see much more of her than back of her head. Her psychological state, like Brandon's, is never discussed, but take one look at Mulligan and you know Sissy is a girl on the edge.

"Shame" is about far more than addiction. It quietly criticizes and deglamourizes the entire alpha male image that Brandon creates for himself. All the hallmarks of his success - being rich and attractive, living in Manhattan, enjoying all the best clubs and restaurants, and snagging the girl that a colleague couldn't – amount to very little in the end. He spends most of the film perfectly miserable, despite enjoying every classic heterosexual male sexual fantasy in the book. Sissy's life as an artist doesn't bring her happiness either, her pretty exterior masking too much pain. Manhattan itself has never looked so beautiful and so desolate.

"Shame" is a tough film, but cathartic and penetrating, and a viewing will linger in the mind for days. The real shame is that more people won't see this film because of the MPAA rating, but that's a rant for another day.
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