Michael Fassbender stars as Brandon - a New Yorker with a sex addiction. It's starting to interfere with his work, his relationships and his life in general, but Brandon can't give up the thrills. Now, his sister, Sissy (Carey Mulligan), needs some place to stay for a while, and the lack of privacy (and potential for being exposed) is becoming too much for Brandon to handle.
For an NC-17 movie, not a whole bunch of excitement can be found in Shame. Co-Writer/Director Steve McQueen and co-writer Abi Morgan are trying to create a meditative, moody film, but they need more dialogue and a clearer storyline to entice us and make us care about this guy.
Brandon seems to be drifting from encounter to encounter, and the audience gets a feeling about where he comes from and where he is in life, but needs more explanation no matter how hard Fassbender is working to show us this guy's pain and the lack of ability to emotionally connect with others. He does a wonderful job with a very sparse script, and makes more of the story come alive than might be there on the page.
Shame is a good showcase for Fassbender's ability, but not a great movie.
1 Waffle (Out of 4)
Shame is rated NC-17 for some explicit sexual content (I saw the movie, it's more than SOME explicit content)
