Steve McQueen's latest film, Shame, has elicited some interesting responses. The NC-17 film about a man, Brandon (Michael Fassbender in a virtuoso performance), struggling with sex addiction, has been the target of a number of jokes and referred to cheekily as "the Michael Fassbender penis movie!" (I'm guilty of saying this myself). It's also been met with some skepticism. A number of reviews and articles have questioned the existence of sex addiction, even going so far as to claim sex addiction is basically a way to demonize male sexuality. Never mind that there are female sex addicts as well.
I think that sex addiction is just as real and damaging as alcoholism, drug addiction, Internet addiction, or anything else that consumes the life of the addict. It's clear that Brandon no longer takes any pleasure in the copious amounts of sex he has. He wakes up in the morning and masturbates in the shower. No big issue there. But then he arrives at his corporate office and downloads hardcore pornography onto his work computer. So much pornography that the tech department thinks his computer must have a virus. He masturbates at work. He goes out after work and has sex with a woman he just met under a highway overpass. He goes home and logs on to his computer and spends the evening looking at more porn. But that's not what happens on one particularly horny day for Brandon--it happens every day. Countless partners--willing women if possible, prostitutes and gay men if necessary. Garbage bags and closets filled with DVDs, magazines, sex toys. A lack of ability to connect with a woman in a non-sexual way. Sex is not fun for Brandon: it's oxygen. It's life itself. And it's a living hell.
When Brandon's unstable and desperately vulnerable sister, Sissy (Carey Mulligan, also giving an excellent performance), shows up unexpectedly at his bachelor pad, she throws his routine (sex, sleep, sex, work, sex, food, sex, sex...) out of whack. The two have cryptic conversations about their past: "We're not bad people. We just come from a bad place." Sissy says to Brandon. But director McQueen gives no direct clues about what Brandon and Sissy's past was like and why they are who they are as adults. The viewer assumes the worst: abuse, definitely. Sexual abuse, very likely. Repressed sexual feelings for each other, possibly.
Sadly, Shame offers little insight into sex addiction--it merely shows what addiction looks like on the surface, and not how Brandon's thought process works underneath. We know he is self-loathing. We infer that he is probably too scared, ashamed, or proud to take the necessary steps to heal himself. He is a man's man surrounded all day by alpha male types who view hooking up (and money) as the ultimate display of masculine power. How can Brandon possibly break free when his own social circle, as well as the society he lives in, keep telling him to fuck more and prettier women? Even his rock bottom--a grim threesome during which Brandon grimaces and looks deeply pained--would get him a high-five at work.
Shame is a slick film with beautiful cinematography and wonderful performances by Fassbender and Mulligan, but it never quite reaches the audience's heart. We sympathize with Brandon, but since the director keeps him at arm's length, we never get to truly empathize with his emotional and sexual prison. Shame is powerful, but it could have been more so if McQueen had let us in a little more (no pun intended). Like Brandon, Shame is beautiful, but closed off.
4 out of 5 stars
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