In the 1945 film ‘The Lost Weekend’ Billy Wilder portrayed alcoholism as a serious illness rather than a charming and amusing peculiarity. Then in the 1956 film ‘Bigger than Life’ Nicholas Ray portrayed the abuse of prescription drugs and it’s affect on everyone. Then in the film Shame, director Steve McQueen focuses on sex addiction. Michael Fassbender’s character Brandon is not a comical sex maniac, but a seemingly stable and satisfied man whose life is privately dictated by the need to continually orgasm whether its by sex with prostitutes, watching porn, having sex with strangers, or masturbation. His high is the chase, the catch, and the release.
From the very opening scene we see Brandon lying awake in bed surrounded by blue sheets. The color of blue here could very well mean isolation. Brandon is lying unaccompanied in bed isolated starring at his ceiling. He gets up from his bed once the alarm clock goes off and the title of the film appears. The viewer is shown a series of flash-forward and flashback sequences to convey Brandon’s ritualistic lifestyle. He get’s up, opens his blinds, walks naked to his bathroom, waits at the subway, works, has sex with either with someone willing or paying a prostitute, and then wakes up starting the whole loop over again. His apartment design is very industrial suggesting Brandon’s mechanical and compulsive sexuality. Every morning he systematically walks around naked around his apartment and always his head is out of the frame, yet his sexual organ displayed, indicating how much it has defined his life. One thing seems to drive Brandon and that’s lust.
While he’s waiting at the subway half of his face is lit while the other is dark. One side is open to all while the other side is seen by a select few. The people in the background are blurred showing that he’s alone even though he lives in New York City. Next we cut to the scene labeled as “Subway Attraction”. We see a blurred face and before we are shown that it is Brandon we see a woman smiling at him. It’s almost like it’s a face of a predator and in a way it resembles the Michael Meyers mask from Halloween. The eyes aren’t visible and the face is vague. This is the mask he wears to prevent anyone from discovering what he really is. Even though at times his mask comes off and when it does he’s troubled by it, but back to this scene. Harry Escott’s score features a repetitive percussion to suggest that this woman looking at Brandon will be his next chase, catch, and release. The tension in this scene is pretty real. No more than a stare and she’s already aroused by him. She looks him up and down. His gaze follows her and doesn’t move his body. She wants him bad and for a moment it seems like he’s about to have her way with her. She crosses her legs she’s trying to remove her wedding ring, but in the process the ring gets stuck. She realizes her lapse in judgment. Her arousal turns to shame. She instantly goes from want to regret. She stands up to show the ring on her finger to visibly tell him “I can’t”, but then Brandon gets behind her. He places his hand under hers almost telling her that he could free her. When she runs off, Brandon doesn’t understand why. He just needed the satisfaction of reaching his release with her. He wants her even though she may not want him. It’s a phenomenal scene, one I’ll come back to later in the review.
With less than ten minutes of the film we already know so much about Brandon. He is driven by sex/lust and is very private with the exception of sex. He’s stuck in a pattern, which he’s content with. His sister has been leaving voicemails for Brandon, before she even appears in the film she’s already said more than him. He knows what he does is considered dirty to others. It’s something to fill his emptiness. When he’s in a meeting at work, his mind drifts off, until he hears “I find you disgusting”, which immediately catches his attention. When he realizes it had nothing to do with him, his mind drifts off again, until he notices his computer being taken off. It’s obviously full of pornography and he gets nervous about this and what he does when he’s nervous is masturbate. Later on his boss confronts him about his computer. It’s immediately written off, expecting someone else of using his computer for pornography like an intern or his assistant. Since Brandon is so successful and high up in society no one assumes that it is him watching porn on his own work computer.
Brandon’s boss David convinces Brandon to come with him to a club to find some women. Brandon reluctantly agrees. David has a similar lust for sex, just like Brandon, but can’t act on it even though he tries. He tries to hard to catch the interest of the girls. It came across as desperate and that’s why the ladies weren’t that interested in David. Brandon was more subtle, which was how he picked one of them up. It goes on to show that Brandon will get his release. Whether he’s home alone or out with co-workers.
Brandon’s ritualized life is put on pause when his sister Sissy intrudes on his life by showing up at his apartment and moving in with him. Brandon has a pattern to his life and his days are often the same. So when something new enters his life he tries to deal with it. Brandon wants nothing to do with his sister and yet she still clings to him. Sissy is chaotic and disruptive. She causes problems with both Brandon’s private and professional life. He is forced out of his pattern. Instead of watching pornography next to his window in the kitchen he watches it in his bedroom. Whether she means to or not she is forcing him out of his comfort zone. Brandon is emotionally detached while Sissy is overly emotional. His life is clean, immaculate, and well organized while hers is simply a mess. Both of them are unable to forge real relationships. He overhears her conversation on the phone. She can’t get the love she wants from other men so she looks for the love and support from her brother. He starts to almost act paternal around her while still looking down on her. She asks him to see her sing, which he agrees to. When Brandon watches his sister sing he realizes that he cares for her and that Sissy is just as broken as he is. It’s speculated that both were abused as kids and that because of this they are the way they are. They’re trying to find themselves, but still alone. The real Brandon comes out, not the sex addict, but someone who sincerely cares for his sister. This takes him by surprise almost. The close-ups on their faces in the scene shows that they are damaged people who are more than their compulsions. He ends up crying when she sings. He may be crying because of his hurt, the way she sings to escape.
David was with Brandon at the club Sissy sang at. David takes advantage of Sissy knowing that she’s looking for someone to love her. Brandon tries to protect her, but is in a problematic position since David is his boss. David knows this and uses it to his advantage. Next thing we know David and Sissy are in the Brandon’s apartment having sex. He does not confront them instead he waits at the elevator for a bit before going into his apartment, but it’s too much for him so he goes outside to run to try and clear his head. He’s trying to escape. Once he’s done running he goes back to his apartment to try and sleep it off. Brandon feels betrayed by Sissy and sends her packing. The next day he sees two people in an apartment complex having sex with the blinds open. He wishes he could be open like this with his addiction, but knows it can’t happen.
Brandon decides to go on a date with a colleague. He actually makes a real connection with her. They have a conversation about if they could choose a time period to live in, which would they choose. Brandon wishes he could be a musician in the sixties, while she says she’s content with being in the now. This could mean he’s uncomfortable in his own body. When he’s about to have sex with her it’s more of a tender interaction compared to all the soullessness sexual acts he does throughout the rest of the film, but he can’t perform for her. This means he can only perform if it means nothing. This is why he is so ashamed and upset after she leaves. He knows what he is. After she leaves he has sex with a prostitute and this time he does it like the two people he saw in the apartment for the world to see.
Once again Sissy comes back into the picture. He tried to clean up his act after Sissy found her pornography on his computer. He threw away his laptop and magazines, but his addiction beat him. Sissy asks for a hug, but all his compassion for her is gone. All he feels is disdain for her now. He leaves, hits on a woman, and gets beat up by her boyfriend. Sex for him is a means to an end. He then ends up going to gay brothel to suggest Brandon’s hunt for sex is based on the release rather than satisfying any actual desires. After he finishes at the brothel he gets a voicemail from sissy saying they both come from a bad place, but it doesn’t make them bad people. He then goes on to have a threesome. This scene focuses so intensely on his face and the viewer can see he’s strained and depressed. He just needs to fill that void in his life and he thinks sex can fill it if only for a moment.
When something happened to Sissy he blamed himself. His addiction overpowered his affection for his sister and tries to clean up because of it. The film could have ended there and it still would have been a masterpiece, but that final scene took it to another level. He goes on the subway and meets the same woman from the beginning of the film again. Brandon is trying to kick his habit, but this time she’s flirting with him trying to lead him back to temptation. We want Brandon to clean up so he can have the life he deserves. Does he pass or fail the test? Before he can make a decision the film ends.
This will always be director Steve McQueen’s best film along with Michael Fassbender. This is the film I immediately think about when someone mentions the actor’s name. The acting was phenomenal, every bit of dialogue actually has meaning, the cinematography was lovely, and just about everything about the film is perfect. I remember seeing this film with a group of colleagues and they were all disgusted by it. I sat in my seat amazed by this film. How it dealt with
The film is truly honest. It’s very rare. The viewer can feel Brandon’s self loathing and desperate need for redemption. He’s truly broken. Throughout the film he searches for someone or something to fill this void. Shame depicts the lonely life of a person suffering from an addiction. I really felt Brandon’s narcissism and rage from his addiction. It shows some of the struggles an addict can succumb to. There aren’t many films I can call perfect. There are thousands upon thousands of films out there and a select few of them I would call perfect and Shame is one of those films.
5 out of 5
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