Brandon, the central character of British director Steve McQueen's "Shame," is an unhappy man. He's obsessed with sex, both with having it and with looking at it over the Internet. As depicted in the superb new movie starring Michael Fassbender, Brandon's addiction is a joyless one.
Nudity aside, the sexually explicit film doesn't quite reveal all. It plays coy regarding the answer to its most nagging question. Is the title "Shame" a reference to what Brandon himself thinks about his endless search for sex? Is he ashamed of his seemingly unstoppable quest for satisfaction? Or is the title a note of disapproval? It's up to the audience to decide where the movie stands.
McQueen and his co-screenwriter, Abi Morgan, have created one of the least sympathetic characters imaginable. But they've also set a trap.
Brandon is good-looking and muscular in a wiry sort of way. He has a productive job for a high-tech company and a positive relationship with his boss.
After work, the two go to bars together. Brandon is an immediate magnet for many of the woman he encounters. The boss happily gathers up the leftovers.
Brandon has money, a sense of fashion and style, and if that weren't enough, he has a terrific, very sleek Manhattan apartment in Chelsea with a great view.
This makes him immensely appealing. He's like the man-on-the-run character in a Hitchcock thriller. The audience identifies with him and becomes complicit in his trolling for sex.
But Brandon should be difficult to like. Like the decor of his modernist apartment, he's cold and impersonal. He rarely smiles and he seems incredibly uncomfortable on an actual date with a very nice and promising woman.
It's obvious that all he is thinks about is whether sex will cap the evening. For a smart guy, he's intensely shallow. He seems to be socially awkward.
But the audience stays with him because of his visual appeal. By the end of the movie, many may feel as empty as Brandon. That's the trap, and that may also be the point.
"Shame" is a remarkable film, not because of the graphic sex and full-frontal male and female nudity, but because it dares to address an issue that hovers over society like a dark, ominous cloud.
The more society becomes connected with the ability to instantaneously communicate a single thought around the world, the more disconnected it becomes from the very people to whom it is communicating. Brandon's entire being is wired into a digital footprint. The more technology he consumes, the lonelier he becomes.
He's also a control freak. There's a lot of the obsessive compulsive in him, especially when Sissy, his quirky younger sister, comes to visit.
She's a bit of a free spirit. The two share a secret from their past, but it's a secret not fully revealed. She comes across as a wounded young woman. And we already know that Brandon is also a wounded soul.
The arrival of Sissy causes familial resentment to rise within Brandon. It doesn't help that he's a neat-freak and she's sloppy in many ways. It's possible that the movie's title may actually have something to do with their childhood.
When Brandon goes to a jazz club to hear Sissy sing, it's a moment that stands out. It seems he can care at least a little bit about people.
But Sissy will test his patience, and after she interrupts him during a moment of solitude, his anger is quick, ugly and brutal. It's almost to be expected. Throughout the movie, Brandon has come across as a man barely suppressing a seething rage.
"Shame" has a deliberate pace. It's directed with precision, and you are quickly drawn in.
Much of the music heard on the soundtrack is from Bach, a composer whose work energizes Brandon.
Visually, the film is exceptional, not only because of the stark production values, but also because of Sean Bobbitt's striking cinematography. Bobbitt creates moments of poetic beauty.
As Brandon's sexual hunger proceeds unceasingly, including multiple partners and gay sex, the movie builds to its careful conclusion with a measured intensity. This is a tribute to both the sparse screenplay (not a word is wasted) and to McQueen's nonjudgmental direction.
As Brandon, a man who at times seems bored with his obsession, Fassbender is excellent. His is a performance that challenges other actors to dare to be as bold and uncompromising.
Also very good are Carey Mulligan as Sissy, James Bridge Dale as David the boss, and Nicole Beharie as Marianne, the woman whose date with Brandon gives us some much-needed clues to other aspects of his personality.
The character closest to Brandon whom I've seen in movies is Patrick Bateman, the self-absorbed cynic from "American Psycho." The two successful men share an interest in stark interiors, self-gratification and sexual power. Fortunately, Brandon does not have the murderous fantasies that warped the Bateman character. And "Shame" is not a motion picture draped in cynicism.
Through the icy emotions on display, we sense an impotence, if you will, on the part of Brandon to display some sort of humanity. I believe that he does desire to warmĘto the world around him. He does crave a more honest connection to people, but in the film, his emotional immaturity prevents him from advancing.
If movie characters have lives before a picture starts and after it ends, then perhaps Brandon will find the intimacy that eludes him in "Shame." For now, he's adrift. McQueen, Morgan and Fassbender clearly know that he's unhappy. When that unhappiness will break is up to Brandon.
| Niagara Falls Reporter | www.niagarafallsreporter.com | Feb. 14 2012 |