Review: Shame

 Michael Fassbender plays a NY exec struggling with an embarrassing sex addiction, whose routine (of masturbation, pornography, casual sex, and prostitutes) is thrown out of whack when his emotionally needy sister (Carey Mulligan) comes to stay and intrudes in his personal space. There is clearly a shared, presumably painful secret in their past that may have influenced their development as human beings. Nicole Beharie plays a co-worker whom Fassbender courts, and maybe even considers breaking his streak of meaningless sexual relationships for something deeper with her.

 

A lot of people seem to have been deeply moved by this very adult 2011 film from director/co-writer Steve McQueen (“Hunger”). I’m not among them. It’s not so much minimalist as one-note, thin, and repetitive, with only Carey Mulligan’s wonderfully moving turn breathing any life into it (Her Marilyn-esque rendition of ‘New York, New York’ is fantastic). In fact, there are at least three actresses in the film who outact lead actor Michael Fassbender (the gorgeous Amy Hargreaves in particular, is memorable as one of Fassbender’s conquests). Fassbender is a talented and often charismatic actor, but this film doesn’t offer him much of a character in order for him to give much of a performance.

 

I also dispute the notion that this film is about sex addiction. It might be trying to be about that, but there’s a lot of hints, clues, and suggestions that Fassbender’s sexual activities are a result of a repressed desire to have sex with his own sister. The sex addiction thing just seems like smoke and mirrors by a pussy filmmaker afraid to acknowledge what Fassbender’s true desires are. He can’t even get it up some of the time, and that’s because he’s clearly not having sex with the person he truly desires. When he goes to a gay club, it seems like he’s deliberately degrading himself, I guess as punishment for what his true sexual leanings are, because he certainly doesn’t seem to be enjoying the sex. Obviously there’s an embarrassment and shame that goes along with a sex addiction (not that Fassbender emotes such a thing. The normally fine actor offers nothing), but surely in the moment, you’re enjoying the sex, otherwise what’s the ‘high’ associated with the addiction? I’m no expert in these matters by any means, so don’t think I’m telling you that this is absolutely what the film is about, but based on what I saw and my own limited understandings of sex addiction (I’ve read that there’s no ‘enjoyment’ in it, just a need to orgasm, but isn’t an orgasm enjoyable?), it’s the conclusion I came to. We don’t get much insight into what went on in their past, but from subtle hints here and there, it would appear that there was incest and/or molestation of some kind in their family. Look at the scene where Mulligan tries to climb into bed with Fassbender and he angrily shoos her away. If this interpretation is completely wrong (they might just be really close because all they have is each other, but Fassbender’s supposed sex addiction and Mulligan’s carefree attitude towards nudity muddy the waters if that’s the case), it could be my fault, or it could just be that McQueen and Abi Morgan (“The Iron Lady”, also an underwhelming script) have written an incomplete script and left it up to the audience to make of it what they will. I mean, what was the ultimate point by the end of the film? What lesson is ultimately being taught here? I don’t need to be spoon-fed, but it’d be nice if the film offered something resembling details. I got seriously nothing out of it at all, certainly nothing of interest. I could almost sympathise with Fassbender’s plight (if it was a sex addiction, that is), but that doesn’t mean I want to watch someone struggle with a sex addiction for 90 odd minutes, with no real meat on the bones outside of that.

 

It’s not even nearly as sexually explicit as you’ve likely been led to believe, though the opening twelve minutes shows Fassbender’s hairy sausage several times, shows him peeing, and even masturbating. Totally essential stuff for us to see, I’m sure. The actual sex scenes are much more chaste than that. Why? I have no idea, but incompetent camerawork by Sean Bobbitt (any relation to John Wayne or Lorena? Hey, given the penis fetish of the film, it’s a fair question to ask!) doesn’t help. The framing is ridiculous, with so many close-ups of faces and such that the participants could be masturbating in front of each other for all we know.

 

A terribly overrated and very average film. The shame is that it wasn’t better. But if you want to watch Michael Fassbender degrade himself for 90 minutes, with practically nothing else to it, then here’s your movie.

 

Rating: C