Shame @ Arclight Hollywood
The Movie: 3 of
5 Kernels
This exploration of sexual compulsion and sibling relations
is provocative and thought inducing, but fails to crescendo into a moving
emotional experience.
The Pop: 4 of 5
Green Tea and English Tea cookies.
The film
Shame is an oddly
apropos title for the film; since it’s a shame that the film didn’t quite live
up to its own promise. Now I’m not going to lambast this film, it’s solidly
made, with great actors and some wonderful camera work, and a few great scenes,
but the film just never quite gets me to that big revelatory insight that its
protagonist seems to find. The film is best analogized to a beautiful empty
vessel, a vase if you will and it asks you to fill it up. There’s nothing wrong
with this approach to film, but it risks leaving its audience members cold and
detatched from the story.
The
story has often been touted as being about a sex addict and his sister, and
while that’s accurate it really misses the point. The film is about a man named
Brandon (Fassbender) struggling with his own compulsions and emotions. His
sister Sissi’s (Mulligan) arrival back into his life and apartment throws his
guarded secrets into peril. Brandon struggles for normalcy, to open up, but
every opportunity given to him he squanders and the only emotion besides shame
he is capable of seems to be pain.
The
film’s story is thin, and the exposition even thinner. Instead we are offered
really just glimpses into this man’s life. The audience is a passive passenger
on Brandon’s stoic journey from his fancy apartment, straight laced job into
his sexual underworld. The film starts in earnest when his estranged sister
finally shows up, but even their interchanges are thin, partially because
Brandon seems to want nothing to do with her, but can’t bare to simply cut her
out of his life either.
The
simplicity of the story is countered by the complexity of Brandon. His struggle
is really almost entirely interior behind the eyes. His sexual compulsions, be
they the massive amounts of porn he stoically watches, the mid work masturbation
breaks, or the sorted hiring of hookers, never quite seems that bad. What’s bad
are his reaction to his own actions, the fact that he has no one to share with,
and when he finally gets those opportunities to open up, he fails, because of
his (say it with me) shame.
The
saving grace of this film is decidedly the cast, who is great, but also not
delivering the most dynamic work of their career. Fassbender delivers an interesting
companion piece to his Jung from A
Dangerous Method, both men tormented by their sexuality, both stoically
reserved. It creates a similar problem though that I had with his Jung
performance, he doesn’t get to do much. Now that’s not to say that Fassbender
isn’t great doing little, he’s got a lot going on behind his eyes, and when he
does finally start going off the rails he’s magnetic. Mulligan as his sister is
a solid companion and she does get one tour de force moment in the film, and
it’s a highlight, when she sings “New York, New York”. Ultimately though the
character feels like a bit of a caricature (though I may just be reacting to
her cliché 3rd act actions). My favorite performance doesn’t come
from the leads, but from Lucy Walters’s “Woman on a Subway Train”, her
character doesn’t have a name, but she bookends the film and is able to scream
sex and shame without saying a word.
The
film’s direction is as solidly stoic as the lead performance. Steve McQueen’s
love of long takes and actors is firmly on display here. The man has a great
eye for visuals and is able to really get his actors to expose themselves
literally and figuratively. Oddly for a film obsessed with sex, it has less
then you might think in it, most of the film is about the build up, not the pay
off, but also the sex scenes are some of the least memorable. Many of them are
mere cast offs for Brandon and the film captures that same fleeting feeling,
the one pivotal sex/relationship scene does stay with you though, but not for
its eroticism.
Ultimately
the reason this film didn’t get a higher rating from me has to do with this
fleeting narrative. I imagine for some this film will really resonate, others
disgust and others will jut be left more like me, a bit of a blank. I’ll give
credit that it’s a well made film, but at the end of it I’m left wondering why
the film was made, and why I watched it. Not regretful of either, just
wondering what the point is and to the film’s credit that probably is the
point. The film is meant to provoke, make you think about your own life and
your own shame. There’s nothing wrong with this, but when the film does reach
its big moments at the end, you want to feel something like Brandon finally
does, but for me I was just not connected enough to the film at that point to
be on board for its final blow.
The Corn
I this time was able to bring my drink in w/o comment. This
didn’t seem like a popcorn kind of movie, but it was nice to have a
sweet/bitter snack to go along with the film. Green tea and English Tea cookies
are a nice compliment; the crispy cookie (almost a cracker) with its lemony
filling is a delicious counterpoint to the bitter tea.
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