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Title: Shame
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Parents, this movie is rated NC-17. You figure it out. |
They say guilt is the thing that will drive a man insane. This is not true. A guilty person may feel bad about things he does but he can talk about it. He can talk about it because everyone is guilty of one thing or another, and sometimes feeling guilty doesn't mean you're embarrassed. No, if there was a true emotion that eats away at a person's soul its shame. In Steve McQueen's “Shame” we follow someone who we normally wouldn't follow or give the time of day to. Brandon (Michael Fassbender in a career making performance) is a 30-something yuppie who on the outside appears to have everything under control. He has a great job, nice place to live, and he goes out with friends for drinks.
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What people don't know about him though is that Brandon is a closeted sex addict. When the movie opens we see him having an orgasm which he experiences no pleasure from. It is the first of many we'll see, with each one getting more painful. There is no explanation for how he got to this point but one thing is clear: Sex is such a major part of his life it's lost all meaning to him. He craves it on an hourly basis as something he needs, yet when he gets it he gets no pleasure from it. What makes the situation worse is that he is so ashamed to talk about his addiction that he lives an isolated life from the very world he lives in every day. So much so that when his sister Sissy (Carry Mulligan) has to crash at his place for a while it shakes up his world.
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At first I assumed it was because he had sexual feelings for her. But then, I am guilty of being naïve to his emotions, and only after the midpoint did I realize that the problem wasn't that he had sexual feelings for her, but he was ashamed of what she would find out about him . “Shame” is largely dialog free for many crucial scenes. It makes perfect sense that someone like Brandon would not speak much to people, choosing instead to be withdrawn and aloof. But then, he is a master of body language and eye contact. A scene where he picks up a girl on the subway just by looking at her the right way is both impressive and sensual at the same time. This creates another trap for him because he can now get what he wants with the bare minimum of speaking required.
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What director Steve McQueen openly questions in “Shame” is why we are so reluctant to talk about sex. Why, as a society, do we try so hard to keep it in a box? Would being able to talk to people about his addiction have helped someone like Brandon? Could he have a real social life and maybe even find true love if he wasn't so afraid of being labeled a pariah? I've lived through several elections in my life, and I can tell you that without fail there has been a proposition or two that would put a “limitation” on sex offenders. As my understanding of what it means to be a sex offender means though, these laws look more and more confining every day. A sex offender can be as morally as someone who rapes a child to as minor as someone who likes watching certain pornography.
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Regardless though, our message to them is clear: If you like sex, then you deserve to have your freedom taken away. Under this line of thinking I guess that makes someone like Brandon a sex offender. But while he doesn't say much I also see him as a man crying for help. I don't know how he got to this place in his life, but regardless of the fact he is there now. And the thing that most people will have a difficult time accepting is that Brandon, for all his flaws and sick habits, is a GOOD guy! He surely needs help…but where is he going to get it? Would you give him a sympathetic ear if he poured his heart out to you? If getting help results in him having to register as a sex offender…well, no wonder he keeps this all inside. “Shame” is a harrowing, tragic look at someone we unfairly judge as immoral and filthy, when spending more time with the person would reveal a hurting man desperate to get out of the life he's built for himself.
Note: “Shame” has been rated NC-17 by the MPAA for some of the sex scenes. I could get into the fact that the sex is less graphic than that of some college comedies, but the sadder underlying fact of the matter is that by giving this movie an NC-17 the MPAA has reaffirmed the notion that we can't even think about sex, nudity, or sex addiction as anything other than a bad thing. This, ironically, means that Steve McQueen's ultimate message has probably been lost on many people.  |
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