SHAME.......hard to watch, hard to talk about, hard to admit that you sat in a dark cinema watching by yourself, yet harder to watch with someone you are intimate with!
This is a film about a man, who lives with a sex addiction. I admit, that I don't think I knew much about sex addictions. I kind of thought i did. It made me giggle when celebrities were admitted to rehab for sex addiction, I thought they had just been sprung by their partner sleeping around but this film shows a dark side, living with sex addiction is clearly not a good time.
From the early moments of this film we are intimately acquainted with Michael Fassbender and his special endowments, which is fairly confronting, no one is really hiding anything. Brandon (Fassbender) is a character that is hard to sympathise with, there is clearly a very painful road that has brought him to this point and when we meet his sister Sissy, played by the most excellent Carey Mulligan, we know that somewhere in their past, there is tragedy. Sissy needs to feel loved, and sadly for her, when she rocks up at Brandon's, this is never going to happen. He is suffocated by having to share his space and hide his other life.
Fassbender and Mulligan both give amazingly haunting and powerful performances. You will walk out of this film ready to discuss the controversial sex scenes, and yet you will never forget the hauntingly beautiful rendition of New York New York by Carey Mulligan. It is totally mesmerising. I'm still deciding whether it makes it more or less painful, knowing what Sissy is capable of.
I will be completely honest here and say that this is the most sex I have ever seen onscreen, and it did kind of shock me, and yet, the film was so absorbing that there was no time that I wanted to leave. Although there was one scene involving a threesome which did actually feel gratuitously too long. I did wish for it to stop long before it did!
This is a beautifully directed character study of humans trying to dull their pain. It is raw, haunting and harrowing at times. I would have like a little more detail to the two main characters backgrounds, so much is alluded to, yet nothing said, confirmed or given away. I found this a little frustrating.
Michael Fassbender is a definite talent. He gives a physically emotional performance. He is lovely and I can see what the fuss is about. He reminds me of Viggo Mortensen, both his features and intenseness (is that a word?) I will be most interested to watch any film he is in, and yet, he won't be moving into my top 5 anytime soon. I already have a Viggo, so no room currently!
Would I recommend this film? Yes, but not to everyone. This is not a love story, it is not a happy story, the sadness almost drips off the screen, and yet, it is absorbing and most definitely watchable. A warning, don't take your mum or your nanna or a first date!
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