Michael Fassbender plays the part of Brandon Sullivan in the new film Shame. He plays a man who has lost the ability to connect emotionally and has become completely de-sensitised to any form of social interaction.
The film reveals that this is because of his addiction to internet pornography and sex. He only has one real friend, David Fisher, played by James Badge Dale, who is also his boss at work and a fellow pervert. He has no real other attachment in his life except for the women he calls for phone sex and those he picks up in bars.
His routine life of sex addiction is interrupted when his sister visits his flat. She is the emotional opposite of him, is very emotional and has opinions that are quick to form. Her visit to see Brandon means he has been placed outside his comfort zone and he struggles to develop a relationship that is not physical with a woman.
Brandon is aware of his addiction to sex and he knows it is a choice just as alcohol or drugs would be. The film tells the story from his perspective and his desperation is clear throughout the film.Michael Fassbender excels and there are no moments when his acting falls to anything below sublime. There is a moment when he is watching his sister perform in concert where you are truly drawn in to his performance and it is impossible to fault it.
The director of the movie is Steve McQueen, who is known for holding shots for a very long time. These are not the flashy long scenes that are seen in some films and they are mostly just focusing for a long time on a single moment. This is an interesting filming technique that works very well in this flick. Many of the scenes are shot so that the action is actually out of the audiences view.
This achieves a rather astonishing effect as it allows the audience to fill in what is happening with their own minds. By not showing us what is happening the director allows us to create a picture in our head. This is very effective film making technique and works incredibly well in this production.
This technique also has the effect of you being drawn into the film more than you might be otherwise and you feel for the characters more than you might if everything was made clear.
Steve McQueen has proved himself to be a director, who after just two films, is capable of making even the most mundane shots seem interesting. His long shots of particular moments bring a certain amount of intimacy and tenderness to the tragedy that you can see unfolding in the film.
Brandon is a successful businessman with a problem and you don’t feel as if he is a characteristic pervert, you feel as if he is suffering from something that he does not take any pleasure from. If you could say one thing about how this movie makes you feel it would be shame.
If you go to this film it is very important to go with an open mind as parts will be hard to watch. The premier was held on Friday night and many members of the audience laughed at some moments and this wasn’t necessarily because it was funny but because they needed a way to hide how uncomfortable they were feeling.
Many people at the premiere were unprepared for how graphic the film would be and how tragic some moments would become. This is the first great movie of 2012.
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