Shame (2011)

ShameIt is not easy to set up a dark tone with few verbal sequences focuing on a character (almost) and still hold the audience throughout the course of it. The screen writers tend to use good old formula of a "routine" to project the thoughts of the characters which comes off a bit lazy as one can always try and visit some new territories. Steve McQueen is the savior in here, since it requires tremendous effort to pull off a character driven feature which normally the director fails to do so. Michael Fassbender is the key that helps opening the door of this dark room where Carey Mulligan successfully helps the audience to put some light in it. Shame stays true to its raw brutal tone and offers the implanted seed on appropriate time but the scrutiny is kept way too secretive and convoluted that the audience gets busy on unlocking it but unfortunately fails to connect with it.

'Shame' is a dull and uninteresting film that thinks it's a lot better than it actually is. It features minimal dialogue, extended scenes of nothing and a shallow story attempting to pass off as intellectual and deep. The film is directionless and completely unrewarding from the audience's perspective. What's in this film for the viewer? It's certainly not entertainment.Some people will view 'Shame' as art and will say that those who see it in a different light must have 'misunderstood' it. This is a telltale sign of pretentious filmmaking, and 'Shame' is exactly that. It's a film that attempts to say something deep and profound, but spends so much time admiring itself that it ends up saying nothing at all.

Not the Ingmar Bergman classic of the same title, this contemporary British drama follows a young man who begins to reevaluate his obsession with sex and pornography when his sister moves in and begins to date his even more sexually depraved boss. In a performance consisting more of glances and stares than real dialogue, Michael Fassbender does well in the lead role as he wrestles with his conflicted emotions regarding his new home life. The title is especially interesting to consider along these regards; is the presence of his sister (and the knowledge of what his boss is doing with her) the very first thing in his life that has ever caused him to feel ashamed of his sexually active lifestyle? Intriguing as all this is, the film never tackles such ideas in much depth, not really exploring whether or not one should be ashamed of one's sexuality and/or the role of societal expectations in how open one is with one's sexuality. Much visible tension between Fassbender and Carey Mulligan (as his sister) sadly goes unexplored too with only the slightest hints of abusive childhoods and a possible incestuous past between them. And yet, with Fassbender in such good form with his longing stares (especially on the train near the end) conveying so much, this is an easy film to appreciate for the bits and pieces that do work. Harry Escott's moody music score is a particularly commendable touch.

We follow the life of Brandon, a man to such an extent dependent on sex and pornography that it is destroying his emotional life. The situation is quite alarming, because our protagonist is unable to bind with people, in bed he's just an animal driven by his whimsy, sex filled with emotions kills his pleasure, and a relation with his sisters is almost non- existent (each scene in which the two of them have dialogue is filled with anxiety, restlessness and timed anger). The first 20 minutes beautifully illustrates what will be the rest of the film: there is not much conversation among the characters, the narrative is a rare, much of the information the viewer receives via visuals (though not one scene stand out, it can be remarked that the film is professionally framed, essentially balm for eyes) or over the score (which is excellent). In addition to the score, the soudtrack is not bad eater, it fits well. Although explicit scenes are short, the film is well deserving of its NC-17 rating, so I recommend that you watch this alone for the sake of avoiding the inconvenience and additional explanation. Fassbender in this role ( and with that in hunger) proved to be one of the best actors working today, on par with DDL and Pheonix, and a lot of girls and some boys will be delighted by the information that he appears in the film "whole". All in all one of the best films of the 21st century, directed by one of the best directors of the 21st century.