The drama “Shame” by British filmmaker Stephen McQueen earned the ardent love of critics, received an impressive number of flattering reviews and awards, including four prizes from the Venice Film Festival. After going on a wide rental, the picture became the subject of public attention. She has already reacted not so unambiguously to the film "Shame." Reviews of moviegoers, however, are more positive. However, amid enthusiasm and admiration, many negative remarks slip through, full of misunderstanding and perplexity.
The plot of the film is straightforward, if not simple, which, however, is offset by the charismatic game of Michael Fassbender and Carey Mulligan. Their heroes created a serious conflict in the midst of naturalistic sex scenes, impressive New York backgrounds and the general monotony of the script for Shame. The film, reviews (the plot gave a lot of reasons for discussion) and reviews we will analyze below.
The plot of the film "Shame"
Fassbender's hero Brandon is a successful resident of Manhattan, whose appearance is indecently attractive. Moreover, he is just a model of respectability. However, there is a restrained inexpressiveness in him, a detachment in his eyes, which from the first frames hint at some flaws in his personality.
A man shows icy indifference to everything except sex, which is the only incentive for his existence, completely destroying all emotionality and healthy interest in anything other than sexual intercourse.
The meaning of life of a well-fed New Yorker was made from Internet porn videos, sex chats, prostitutes, one-time women and constant masturbation. However, Brandon does not see this as a problem until his hysterical sister bursts into the hero’s apartment, whose eccentricity and impulsiveness breaks his usual way of life, causing the man aggression, disgust and a feeling of deep shame.
The ingenious game of Michael Fassbender
Michael Fassbender conveyed Brandon’s inner void masterfully. You feel it physically. It invisibly permeates the entire film “Shame” from beginning to end. Reviews of the audience about his game are extremely enthusiastic, because it is she who sets the tone for the picture. And critics, not without reason, claim that the role of a mature man suffering from satyriasis is Fassbender’s best work in his entire career.
Brandon’s inhibited movements, his words that he seems to be squeezing with difficulty, the expressionless look and emotional sterility of the hero make him feel uncomfortable, as if in an alien world in which there is no place for anything human.
Brandon cannot be unbalanced. The boss can find gigabytes of porn on his work computer, and his sister can call on the phone, calling for his brotherly feelings, he will take it coldly, and his eyes will light up only from the anticipation of a new one-time connection. However, the arrival of Sissy will bring real chaos to his life, as well as to the whole film “Shame”.
Actors and reviews: Carey Mulligan as Sissy
An emotional jazz singer with a suicidal tendency breaks into the bathroom when Brandon is engaged in masturbation, becomes a witness to his chat sex games and, to top it all off, brings his boss, with whom he indulges in sexual joys, to the apartment.
Together with deliberate arrogance and licentiousness in the behavior of Sissi demonstrates sensitivity and vulnerability. Attempts to reach Brandon, as well as lovers, fail, exposing before the audience a soul that is defenseless and rejected by everyone. Sissy is woven from contradictions, like the song New York, New York, which in her performance has transformed paradoxically from a groovy hit to a sad ballad. The combination of monstrous tactlessness and unbridledness with rejected sincerity naturally awakens pity or a dismissive disgust, coupled with indignation, from the viewer.
Sissy is Brandon's true antipode. And Carey Mulligan performed this role soundly, as evidenced by the prize she received at the Hollywood Film Festival for the best supporting role. Sissy brought a considerable amount of emotionality to the film “Shame”. Reviews of the actors' play, however, are uneven. The audience reacts to Mulligan quite restrained, and the real laurels go to Fassbender.
Ambiguous relationship between heroes
The main stumbling block in the analysis of the film is the painful relationship between Sissy and Brandon, which make the Shame movie a real mystery. Reviews and reviews are full of assumptions. According to critics, Sissy is not only a burden for his brother, but also a woman with whom Brandon basically can’t have anything, so she becomes an extra element in his life.
The audience is either outraged by the behavior of the protagonist, then condemn his sister, and some even capture incest notes in their relationship. The scenes seem too strange and ambiguous when Sissy appears naked before Brandon, gets into his bed or fights with his naked brother on the couch. Some viewers consider her herself an erotomaniac, and the conflict between the heroes is attributed to Brandon’s perverted jealousy.
However, for many, this idea seems absurd. Everyone sees the painful relationships of the heroes in their own way. After all, the conflict is based on how an individual perceives the film “Shame”. The reviews vary regarding Brandon’s underlying problem.
Addiction or lifestyle?
Controversial was the dependence on the sex of the protagonist. Many people ask, but is he really sick? Perhaps Brandon’s lifestyle is an everyday occurrence in modern society, which is simply not accepted to declare openly? This question poses to the viewer the film "Shame" (film, 2011). The reviews, however, indicate that the majority perceives his behavior as a sexual pathology, which should at least be treated by a specialist.
The appearance on the stage of Sissy leads him to the realization of his own inferiority and the need for change. However, the first relationship in several years with a work colleague, Marianne, only exacerbates the situation, because Brandon's body refuses him, as soon as feelings appear on the horizon. Failed proximity pushes him back, leading the hero to a real emotional crisis.
The problem of addiction of this kind makes the film “Shame” non-trivial. Reviews of moviegoers put it on a par with the well-known film "Requiem for a Dream." Dependence, however, as well as hopelessness, are a unifying factor for them. For some, the needle, for others, sex is the basis of the total degradation of personality.
Erotic Bacchanalia
Stephen McQueen filled the film with an impressive amount of sex scenes. However, endless sexual intercourse, masturbation, naked genitals, contrary to expectations, did not cause much indignation, indignation and complaints about the director, who boldly demonstrates soft porn on the screens. Naturalism, as the audience noted, harmoniously fits into the movie “Shame”. Reviews of moviegoers are highly tolerant, perhaps because, initially, Brandon's eroticism looks like a pathology. In the context of the protagonist’s problem, sex itself becomes asexual, painful, cold, repulsive. In the film by Steve McQueen, he is called to cause shame, although filmed with a clear aesthetics.
Understatement
The object of heated discussion was the understatement that permeates the film “Shame”. The description and reviews about it eloquently hint that for the viewer a lot will remain unclear and foggy.
In the phrases of the heroes, there are only one hint that prompts thought and conjecture. The lack of clear explanations and the mute givenness of the conflict alarms and annoys many moviegoers, provoking negative responses. The picture of McQueen is reproached for the lack of depth, idea, global concept.
Many people ask: why make such a movie? However, if for some this film is an empty story about a sexually preoccupied clerk and his stupid careless sister, for others it is a catalyst for speculation and a basis for reflection.
The same woman
The object of all kinds of fantasies will be the image of the same woman with a wedding ring on her finger, which Brandon meets at the beginning and at the end of the Shame film in the subway car (film, 2011).
Reviews about her are full of guesses. The image is deliberately symbolic, and this symbolism the viewer will have to analyze on his own, as a whole film. Innocence at the beginning and blatant vulgarity at the end are interpreted differently. For some, the image of a woman in the subway is a reflection of the changes in Brandon’s personality, for others it’s part of the entourage created by McQueen.
The underlying changes of the protagonist are also very controversial. Everyone will perceive in their own way the film "Shame." Reviews and reviews on the work of the British filmmaker make you perceive the film, full of mysteries, as a blank board (tabula rasa), on which an attentive viewer will write what the fantasy dictates to him.
Finally
“Shame” - these are unanswered questions that few will like. The drama, in fact, borders on the arthouse, which obviously means that it is unlikely to be of interest to the general public. Understatement, depressive atmosphere, monotonous course of events annoy many. However, having shot the film “Shame”, Stephen McQueen nevertheless justified the credit (confirmation of that) to the confidence of non-standard movie fans.