Shame
SHAME -シェイム-
Storyline
The whole story, ending included.
A Manhattan sex addict cannot be touched by anyone he knows; his sister's arrival breaks the routine.
Brandon Sullivan is an executive in New York. He has sex with prostitutes and strangers, watches pornography constantly and masturbates several times a day. On the subway one morning he holds the gaze of a woman wearing an engagement ring; she returns it, grows uneasy and disappears into the crowd.
He has been ignoring calls from his younger sister, Sissy, a singer. He comes home to find her in his shower. She has gigs in the city and asks to stay, and he reluctantly agrees. At a bar, Brandon and his married boss, David, watch her sing 'New York, New York', and Brandon is moved. David notices signs that she has harmed herself in the past, flirts with her and sleeps with her in Brandon's bed; Brandon goes out running. When Sissy later tries to lie beside him for comfort, he shouts at her to leave.
Brandon goes on a date with a recently separated colleague, Marianne, which starts badly and ends well. When Sissy walks in on him masturbating, he pins her down and berates her; when she finds pornography open on his laptop, he slams it shut. He throws out his pornography and his laptop. He takes Marianne to a hotel but cannot perform, and she leaves; afterwards he has sex with a prostitute in the same room.
He tells Sissy to go, calls her a parasite and walks out. In a bar he provokes a woman's boyfriend and is beaten in the street. Turned away from a club, he has sex with a man in the back room of a gay bar, then hears a voicemail in which Sissy, crying, says they are not bad people, they just come from a bad place. He spends the night with two prostitutes. On the subway home, the train is stopped for a police emergency. He calls Sissy; she does not answer. He runs home to find that she has tried to take her own life. She survives. He comforts her in hospital, then breaks down in the rain. Later, on the subway, he sees the woman with the engagement ring again. This time she holds his gaze, then rises to leave at the next stop. Brandon keeps watching her, and the film ends.
Starring
Michael Fassbenderas Brandon Sullivan
A successful New York executive whose compulsive sex life leaves no room for anyone he knows.
Brandon Sullivan’s story
Brandon keeps his compulsion to himself: prostitutes, strangers, pornography. On the subway a woman with an engagement ring returns his gaze, then slips away. He reluctantly lets his sister, Sissy, stay. When she sleeps with his boss in his bed, he goes running; when she seeks comfort beside him, he shouts at her. After a good date with his colleague Marianne he throws out his pornography, but in a hotel with her he cannot perform, and then pays a prostitute. He calls Sissy a parasite and walks out into a night of fights and strangers. Racing home, he finds she has tried to take her own life. She survives; he comforts her in hospital, then breaks down in the rain. On the subway the woman with the ring meets his gaze and rises to leave, and he keeps watching.
Carey Mulliganas Sissy Sullivan
Brandon's younger sister, a singer who has harmed herself before, who arrives needing a place to stay and more than he can give.
Sissy Sullivan’s story
Sissy is a singer whose calls her brother keeps ignoring, until he comes home to find her in his shower. She asks to stay while she has gigs in the city, and on the phone begs a lover not to leave her. At a bar she sings 'New York, New York' and moves Brandon to tears, then sleeps with his boss, David, in Brandon's bed. When she lies down beside Brandon for comfort, he shouts at her to go. When he calls her a parasite and tells her to leave, she says that family should help each other. That night, crying, she leaves him a voicemail: they are not bad people, they just come from a bad place. Then she tries to take her own life. Brandon finds her; she survives, and he comforts her in hospital.
James Badge Daleas David
Brandon's married boss, a clumsy flirt, who sleeps with Sissy on the night he meets her.
Nicole Beharieas Marianne
A recently separated colleague who goes on an ordinary date with Brandon.
Lucy Waltersas The Subway Lady
A woman with an engagement ring whose gaze Brandon holds on the subway, at the start and at the end.
Why it matters
Shame treats sex addiction as neither a vice nor a joke but as a closed room. Brandon has sex constantly and intimacy never; the one date on which he might be known is the one on which his body refuses. Steve McQueen shows compulsion from the inside, as something joyless, repetitive and lonely, and Michael Fassbender won the Volpi Cup for best actor at Venice in 2011 for playing it. The film's other subject is family. Brandon and Sissy share a damage the film never explains; the only clue is her voicemail: they are not bad people, they come from a bad place. Its explicitness earned it an NC-17 rating in the United States. The question it leaves is how a person who uses sex to avoid being touched can let someone close, and whether the woman on the train at the end is a chance or another escape.