If you ever wondered what the difference was between love and lust or why making love and having sex were two totally distinct experiences, seeing Shame will make everything clear. The latest film from art-indie director Steve McQueen tells the gritty tale of a Manhattan sex addict named Brandon, played with piercing tragedy by Michael Fassbender. Yes, most men are always thinking about sex unless they have low testosterone. Sure, people are primal in their urges and with the Internet it is easy to get those needs met. Sex is part of life isn’t it? Yes and no. We need to eat to live but too much of it is an eating disorder that will kill you. Sex is the mechanism for procreation but too much of that can kill you with an STD or ruin your life and relationships just like drugs do.

Dr. Drew Pinksy examined the painful traumas that lead people into sex addiction. In his show Sex Rehab he talked with sex addicts who survived sexual abuse, sexual assault, and all sorts of childhood trauma that even adults would have difficulty recovering from without help. The nature of addiction is to seek relief in a maladaptive way from the pain of intrusive memories and PTSD among other things. When Shame was making the rounds of the film festivals earlier this year I was expecting that this is what I would see on film. A character whose life history was filled with intense grief which fuels his drive to seek escape through indiscriminate sexual encounters all over New York, but that was not the story.

I saw Shame when it first opened in San Francisco on December 2 and I got a different film than the one I anticipated. Luckily, for all the NC-17 content the movie is more erotica in cinematography than hardcore. Think 1970’s Penthouse couples layouts before the magazine became a smut rag. Back then, it was all suggestive instead of actual showing everything and leaving nothing to the imagination. Shame had a lot of the tension and the visceral energy of sexual exchange between men and women in early Penthouse magazines but nothing about it qualified as a Caligula 2011. Fassbender is perfectly cast for his quiet but intense sex appeal and physicality. He is the kind of man who could turn even a nun into a Tantric Priestess just by the eye sex glance he gives to a passenger in the New York subway in the opening scene.

Fassbender’s character, Brandon, is a man deep in lust 24/7 but unable to love, not his sister or his romantic interest Marianne. It’s painfully evident when he pushes his fragile sister Sissy away until he almost loses her. It’s also a sorrowful moment that when he gets the opportunity to make love for once with Marianne and he can’t perform. Such is the disconnect between heart and groin that dooms Brandon to spend his days relieving his urges on anonymous strangers, online sex sites, and whomever he gets the opportunity with. Sex is a fix as Fassbender has said. It’s not even pleasurable.

Shame may arouse some but it makes most cry. I was somewhat disappointed in the lack of backstory as to why Brandon and Sissy became the emotional wrecks they were.  I had expected so much from this film given the entire film festival buzz. The scenes are well played but more plots would have been much desired. Instead, Shame introduces Brandon and Sissy and then the story just runs off into sequences of their respective dramas until Sissy’s suicide attempt. The climax is anti-climactic as is all the sex Brandon is having. There is no after sex glow on his face, just a deep toxic sentiment of feeling dirty. Such as my own reactions when I left the movie theater after seeing Shame, all I could think was: is that it?

Please rate the movie as well. I forgot to tell you. The scale is below.
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ON A SCALE OF 1 THROUGH 5,
1 = WASTED MY TIME, THEY WASTED THERE TIME
5 = !EXCELLENTE!, I WANT THE WHOLE WORLD TO EXPERIENCE THIS
THIS FILM GETS A 4 = THIS WAS PRETTY GOOD

Published by Jackie Morrison

Jackie Morrison (JackieMO) is an Arts and Culture writer in California. She enjoys foreign film and methodactors, Broadway theater, photography and the natural beauty of the Rocky Mountains. Would love a lifetime membership to any film festival in the world! BA in Psychology and avid reader of literary magazines. Favorite book is The Last Letter From Your Lover by Jojo Moyes.

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