Film Review: Shame

Director: Steve McQueen

This is Steve McQueen's second film after 'Hunger' about Bobby Sands who led the second IRA hunger strike in 1981, which also starred Michael Fassbender, and was praised upon release by many reviewers.

Fassbender superbly plays Brandon, a sex-addicted New York City office worker who lives in a bare and anonymous flat with a beautiful view over Manhattan. Early on we see Brandon walking around his flat naked whilst he listens to what sounds like an ex-lover telling him to pick up the phone in an answer phone message but later find out who it actually is. I remain unsure as to why we had to see him walking round naked and using the toilet whilst the message plays, seemed possibly gratuitous. 



Brandon in his trademark blue scarf

From early on we see Brandon indulging in call-girls and masturbation in the shower to fulfil his sexual appetite and before meeting a co-worker for a date he sees a couple having sex against a window in their apartment. My theory is that his obsession made him imagine this happening and provoked a jealousy inside him which later in the film made him perform the same act with a call girl but that could just be me going too deep and Lynch about it all.

His world is rocked by the appearance of his sister Sissy (played by Carey Mulligan). She is a singer who crashes at his flat whilst she performs at some bars and is obviously a drifter who is very dependent on people. From the outset it is very uncomfortable between them and some hostility mainly on Brandon's part.  This seems to develop as the film progresses with Sissy crawling into his bed only for Brandon to complete flip out and throw her out. It shows a glimpse into a troubled past between the two that is never explored by McQueen and is left open to interpretation to the viewer. Sissy singing an excruciatingly slow rendition of "New York, New York" nearly brings him to tears but again no explanation as to why is given before he refuses to praise her performance when she sits with him. I felt this was the moment we were really going to find out more about the relationship between the two but alas I was left disappointed. The key to them having a troubled past for me came through in an answer phone message played near the end, before one of the climatic scenes, where Sissy says ''that we are not bad people''.

The film has some fantastic scenes which include Brandon making eye contact with her girl on the subway in a scene which has no dialogue. Throughout watching this scene I was constantly pondering what each movement by the two characters meant in terms of body language, the girl crossing her legs before she got off looked like her way of saying she wasnt interested before she gave him the slip heading out of the subway station. A scene which many will have seen in the trailer shows Brandon going out for a late night run as his sister and boss (in my eyes cringe worthy when chatting up women but played superbly by James Badge Dale) have sex in the living room. The tracking shots of him running and the soft piano music which is played as if through Brandon's Ipod are truly amazing (if anybody knows what the song was I'd love to know).

Despite the heavy content there are a few darkly funny moments to be had but the sexual content is about as explicit as you are going to get in cinema. A ménage a trois near the end continues long after you get the idea of what is going on and is unnecessary but the real downside to this movie is that you never learn enough about the characters, especially Brandon, to care deeply as to what happens to them. After finally getting Marianne (weirdly awkward performance by Nicole Beharie) into bed he is unable to perform and is deeply shocked, possibly showing that he cared about her but feels he may get emotionally involved. But beyond this it's really hard to understand why both Brandon and Sissy are the way they are without knowing more about them. Sometimes leaving things open to interpretation improves a film and sometimes it doesn't.

2.5/4 a film worth seeing for some unforgettable scenes but falls down in plot and character development