Shame (2011 film)

Shame
UK release poster
Directed by	Steve McQueen
Produced by	Iain Canning Emile Sherman
Written by	Steve McQueen Abi Morgan
Starring	Michael Fassbender Carey Mulligan James Badge Dale Nicole Beharie
Music by	Harry Escott
Cinematography	Sean Bobbitt
Editing by	Joe Walker
Studio	UK Film Council Film4 See-Saw Films HanWay Films
Distributed by	Momentum Pictures (United Kingdom) Fox Searchlight Pictures (United States)
Release dates	4 September 2011 (2011-09-04) (Venice) 2 December 2011 (2011-12-02) (United States) 13 January 2012 (2012-01-13) (United Kingdom)
Running time	101 min.[1]
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English
Budget	£4.2 million (approx. $6.5 million)[2]
Box office	$17,693,675[3]

Shame is a 2011 British drama film cowritten and directed by Steve McQueen, starring Michael Fassbender and Carey Mulligan. It was coproduced by Film4 and See-Saw Films. The film's explicit sexual scenes regarding sexual addiction resulted in it being rated NC-17 in the United States, where it opened on December second, 2011 on limited release.^[4][5] Shame was released in the United Kingdom on 13 January 2012.^[6] The film grossed $17,000,000 by the end of its world-wide theatrical run, including nearly $4,000,000 in the United States.^[7]

Plot

Brandon (Michael Fassbender) is a successful, handsome advertising executive in his thirties living a fantasy life of hypersexuality in New York City. Distanced from his dysfunctional family and seemingly without any close friends, his carefully cultivated life lets him indulge a growing secret sexual addiction, while struggling with his eroding ability to connect emotionally with anyone. During his morning commute to work, on a subway train he flirts by with a woman and she reciprocates. She has on both a wedding ring and an engagement ring, and when they exit the train, she disappears into the crowd.

His company's computer system is compromised by a virus; in the clean-up, Brandon's computer hard drive indicates an obsessive history of surfing pornographic sites, one of which is probably the source of the virus. Although Brandon, who is driven to masturbate in the bathroom stall at work, is responsible, it is assumed by company heads that his intern is to blame.

Brandon and his married boss David (James Badge Dale) meet three women at a club. Later on, Brandon has sex with one of them, the one David was actually pursuing. When Brandon arrives home, he assumes a burglar is in his house but finds the unexpected visitor is his sister Sissy (Carey Mulligan). Sissy works as a part-time singer who has a few gigs in the city and asks to stay with Brandon; he later hears her pleading with her lover on the telephone not to reject her. Brandon is annoyed by Sissy's visit as she is emotionally needy, a trait with which he has no patience. She is also interfering with and hindering his personal life, which forces him to think about the increasingly unhealthy obsessive path his life is taking.

The next morning at the subway station, Sissy is balancing herself on the edge of the platform. Brandon rebukes her, and in the brief exchange that follows Sissy persuades her brother to visit her as she performs at a club—something that he avoided in the past. Later, Brandon is joined by an enthusiastic David as they watch Sissy singing a very sad jazz version of "New York, New York", which makes Brandon emotional. Sissy joins Brandon and David at their table, where David courts her despite Brandon's evident dismay. Sissy accepts David's advances and has sex with him in her brother's bedroom while Brandon, disgusted, leaves his apartment and goes out running. Later that night, Sissy attempts to sleep in his bed with him, feeling detachment and apologetic. Enraged at her seemingly random behavior, he orders her out of the room.

Brandon's had a distant attraction to his co-worker Marianne (Nicole Beharie) and the two flirt with each other at work. On the way to dinner with her, he stops to observe a high-rise hotel, where he sees two people copulating against the window. The date is relaxed with sparks between the attractive couple but turns unintentionally personal as conversation steers on their affective differences: Marianne, who was recently separated, keeps a positive attitude toward commitment, while Brandon dislikes marriage and admits that his relationships have never lasted longer than four months. Although the pair seem very curious about each other, they part ways at the end of the night without kissing, each going home alone, which seems to be a turning point for Brandon, as he enjoys the fragile (but nonsexual) moment and she reciprocates.

Later that night, Sissy accidentally walks in on Brandon masturbating in his bathroom. He physically attacks her and accuses her of spying on him. She then finds his laptop open on a pornography webcam site; the woman on the web-cam is familiar with him and assumes Sissy is his girlfriend. Brandon slams the laptop shut. Disturbed and upset, Sissy leaves. Brandon angrily throws out all of his pornographic magazines and his laptop. The next day, at work, he kisses Marianne and the two leave in their excitement. He takes her to the same high-rise hotel where he saw the two people copulating. The two caress each other and kiss in a nervous, passionate attempt to have sex but Brandon seemingly can not maintain an erection and appears heavily distressed. Marianne is saddened but seems to understand which is a turning point for Brandon, as he realizes he is unable to connect with her. or presumably anyone else, except in a detached sexual way.

Marianne leaves, after which Brandon indulges with another woman against the window later that day. Afterwards, as she prepares to leave, he struggles with the fact that he can't have sex with someone he cares for, while feeling nothing for the women he does have sex with. Brandon is home watching cartoons when Sissy arrives. Knowing that she is emotionally dependent and has probably called David, he tells her that he is disgusted with her and that David won't be seeing her again because he has a wife and children. He accuses her of playing the victim; she claims she never noticed David's wedding ring. He tells her she needs to leave, that he feels trapped by her. She says that they are family and are supposed to help each other, but Brandon accuses her of being needy and a burden.

Brandon begins to unravel and when he goes to a bar his advances are less smooth and more desperate, as he gropes a woman while verbally enticing her. He ends up being beaten up by her boyfriend whom he has deliberately antagonised by making aggressive references to his fantasies about her.

After he is denied entrance to a night-club he notices a gay bar across the street and curiously, desperately enters. He walks to the back, where several men are copulating; a man kisses Brandon and then fellates him. Upon leaving the bar, he listens to a voicemail message from Sissy telling him how much she needs him, and that they aren't bad people, they've just come from a bad place. Much like a drunk on a night of binge drinking, Brandon continues, visiting an apartment occupied by two prostitutes, where the three copulate.

While Brandon is riding the subway on his way home, the passengers are asked to leave the carriage due to an implied suicide further up the tracks. He frantically calls Sissy, but she does not answer, so he rushes home. When he gets there, Sissy, who has a history of cutting herself, is lying on the bathroom floor, having slashed her wrists. She survives and he comforts her in the hospital. After leaving, he collapses and cries in the rain. Some time later, Brandon is seen sitting on a subway train and the same woman from the beginning of the film sits across from him, this time he notices she is only wearing an engagement ring. He tries to look away, but she keeps staring at him and smiling. She stands up to leave the train and Brandon keeps staring at her. The train begins screeching to a stop. At the height of the noise, the screen cuts to black, leaving the audience to ponder Brandon's next decision.

Cast

• Michael Fassbender as Brandon Sullivan
• Carey Mulligan as Sissy Sullivan
• James Badge Dale as David
• Nicole Beharie as Marianne
• Lucy Walters as Woman on Subway
• Alex Manette as Steven
• Hannah Ware as Samantha

Production

Development

McQueen worked with producer Iain Canning on the 2008 film Hunger and they reunited to develop Shame with Canning and Emile Sherman's UK/Australia-based See-Saw Films. McQueen's lead actor in Hunger, Michael Fassbender, was the first and only choice to play the lead role in Shame.^[8] Actors Carey Mulligan and James Badge Dale joined the cast in December 2010 to play the little sister and boss, respectively, of Fassbender's character.^[9] Screenwriter Abi Morgan was chosen to produce the script, making it one of two films she worked on with Film4 (the other being The Iron Lady).^[10]

Filming

Production was scheduled to begin on location in New York in January 2011,^[9] though Fassbender later commented in an interview that he just began shooting his scenes in early March.^[11] "I had so many passes I couldn't even tell you", said casting director Avy Kaufman, who faced precisely that challenge in casting the NC-17-rated film. Kaufman had a unique assignment from McQueen, who wanted top-quality actors even for tiny parts – like Brandon's fly-by-night sexual partners. "The idea was that those partners would propel the story forward with their silence, showing Brandon's state of mind, or even suggesting the history of their relationship with a look or a gesture. The actresses, of course, also had to meet certain physical requirements." A majority of the film was shot in and around Chelsea.^{[citation needed]} The office scenes were filmed in the Citigroup Center and the hotel scenes and nightclub scene were shot at the Standard Hotel in the Meatpacking District.^{[citation needed]} Filming ended late May for reshoots, and postproduction began.^{[citation needed]}

Release and reception

Shame premiered at The 68th Venice Film Festival in the main competition.^[12] Fassbender won a Volpi Cup for Best Actor at the Venice Film Festival for his role in the film.^[13] It was also screened at The 36th Toronto International Film Festival,^[14] The 49th New York Film Festival, The 55th B.F.I. London Film Festival and The 34th Starz Denver Film Festival.^[15]

Shame was released in the United Kingdom on January thirteenth, 2012.^[16] Fox Searchlight distributed the film in the US.^[17]

The film opened in the United States on December second, 2011 in limited release.^[18][19] Fox Searchlight Pictures paid around $400,000 to acquire the United States distribution rights of Shame.^[20][21]

U.S. rating

The film was rated NC-17 (no one seventeen years and under admitted) by the Motion Picture Association of America for some explicit sexual content. Fox Searchlight did not appeal the rating or make cuts for the less restrictive R rating. Searchlight president Steve Gilula said, "I think NC-17 is a badge of honor, not a scarlet letter. We believe it is time for the rating to become usable in a serious manner".^[22]

Critical response

Shame has received positive reviews. Review aggregate Rotten Tomatoes reports that 79% of critics have given the film a positive review based on 171 reviews, with an average score of 7.4/10, making the film a "Certified Fresh" on the website's rating system. The Rotten Tomatoes consensus states: "Boasting stellar performances by Michael Fassbender and Carey Mulligan, Shame is a powerful plunge into the mania of addiction affliction." ^[23] At Metacritic, which assigns a weighted mean rating out of one hundred to reviews from main-stream critics, the film received an average score of seventy-two, based on forty-one reviews, which indicates "Generally favorable reviews".^[24]

Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times called Shame "a powerful film" and "courageous and truthful", commenting that "this is a great act of filmmaking and acting. I don't believe I would be able to see it twice." in a four-star review.^[25] Ebert would later name it his second best film of 2011.^[26] Todd McCarthy of The Hollywood Reporter gave the film a positive review, stating: "Driven by a brilliant, ferocious performance by Michael Fassbender, Shame is a real walk on the wild side, a scorching look at a case of sexual addiction that's as all-encompassing as a craving for drugs."^[27]

Dan Bullock of The Hollywood News said "Shame is captivating and intensely intimate. McQueen has followed Hunger with an unflinching and compelling film that explores the depths of addiction and the consequential destruction and demise of the mind and although it is sometimes difficult to watch, you won't be able to keep your eyes off it."^[28]

Justin Chang of Variety magazine gave the film a positive review, commenting: "A mesmerizing companion piece to his 2008 debut, Hunger, this more approachable but equally uncompromising drama likewise fixes its gaze on the uses and abuses of the human body, as Michael Fassbender again strips himself down, in every way an actor can, for McQueen's rigorous but humane interrogation."^[29]

Writing in The New York Times A. O. Scott said, "[Director] McQueen wants to show how the intensity of Brandon's need shuts him off from real intimacy, but this seems to be a foregone conclusion, the result of an elegant experiment that was rigged from the start."^[30]

Donald Clarke of The Irish Times called it "the most wholesome film made about unwholesomeness since The Exorcist" noting that "the underlying current of Puritanism is, however, more than a little oppressive".^[31]

Home media

The film was released on Blu-ray and on the digital outlets in April 2012 as the first NC-17 film to be downloaded on the digital outlets including iTunes, with the exception of Blockbuster and Best Buy, which had a policy prohibiting the rental and purchase of NC-17-rated films.

Accolades

References

External links

• Official website
• Shame at the Internet Movie Database
• Shame at allmovie
• Shame at Rotten Tomatoes
• Shame at Metacritic
• Shame at Box Office Mojo