Morning. Brandon stares into space in his vast apartment in Manhattan. He masturbates in the shower, goes to work, masturbates in the bathroom, goes home, has sex with prostitutes and goes to sleep. Over and over, day in, day out. He is a soulless ghoul, the shell of a man with a disturbing addiction who shares no attachments and shows no feelings or remorse. His sexual life lacks any kind of pleasure and is as mechanical as it is shallow."Shame" observes him intently as we watch his soul being sucked into an endless void and it sure isn’t a pretty sight. Michael Fassbender and director Steve McQueen (who also collaborated in the powerful "Hunger") create a mesmerizing and hypnotic journey following Brandon and turning his life into a living hell.
One day he is visited by his sister Sissy (played by Carey Mulligan) who shares deep wounds and desperately wants to connect with his brother even though he feels threatened by her love, her caring and her insight into his damaged psyche. Sissy must know a lot about Brandon and their childhood must have been filled with traumas and repression but McQueen never gives us easy answers and avoids the motivations riddled with clichés of most dramas. This makes the movie a lot more powerful and provocative as we fill in the missing pieces.
"Shame" is not an easy movie to endure but it has brilliant performances and a depth hiding beneath its apparent empty core. For many, Brandon may resemble the prism of male fantasy in its fullest, filled with angst and repression and ultimately, shame.
