Shame

Writer/director Steve McQueen re-teams with Michael Fassbender, the star of his harrowing and critically heralded debut, Hunger, for Shame, a shocking, but shallow, tale of sex addiction and self-destruction. In a coolly captured Manhattan, affluent businessman Brandon (Fassbender) is a sexual shark with an insatiable appetite, ever gliding from prostitutes to one-night stands to mid-day masturbation breaks without the sticky entanglements of relationships or romance. But the unexpected arrival of his emotionally frail sister Sissy (Carey Mulligan), with whom he shares a frightening sensual chemistry and a total lack of boundaries, ultimately kicks Brandon's self-loathing into high gear, launching him on a volatile course of bar brawls and sexual annihilation. With scorching magnetism, Fassbender and Mulligan fearlessly bare their bodies and souls in service to this tale of deeply damaged siblings with an unspoken secret. Sadly, they are let down by McQueen's preference for ponderously long takes, which results in dragging dialogue and depends on obstructed vantage point cinematography that denies the audience easy proximity to its leads. Despite all the smoke and mirrors, Shame is undeniably gripping, but it's a shame there's so little substance beneath its sex-soaked surface.