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 In cinemas Thursday [R18+]
Director: Steve McQueen
Runtime: 101mins.
What a frightening and gloriously productive relationship writer-director Steve McQueen and actor Michael Fassbender must have – the former has made two feature films, both with Fassbender, and both absolutely putting the actor through a physical and emotional ringer. In Hunger, McQueen asked Fassbender to portray IRA martyr Bobby Sands, a gruelling role that saw the actor shed dozens of kilos to realistically depict a man starving himself to death. And now, in Shame, McQueen asks his collaborator to characterise a man who seems supremely committed to fucking himself to death.
Fassbender plays Brandon Sullivan, a New York executive with a problem; in fact, Brandon could do worse than consult one of Fassbender’s other upcoming characters, nascent psychoanalytic psychotherapist, Carl Jung in David Cronenberg’s A Dangerous Method (out in March). But this New Yorker rarely acknowledges the impact that his addiction has on his life; despite amassing a truly phenomenal collection of pornography, a disturbing knack for ricocheting off fellow subway commuters in sweaty, thrusting, anonymous, back alley encounters, and snatching brief moments of the “little death” in a toilet stall at work, Brandon rarely allows himself to admit that he has a serious problem. And he certainly never permits any significant connection with anyone he meets. This unfortunate creature abhors true emotional contact, and privileges his solitude, even in one of the world’s most populous cities. But when his estranged cabaret-performing sister, Sissy (Carey Mulligan) drifts back into his world, Brandon is forced to confront the implications of his lifestyle, especially when his sleazy boss decides to use her to emulate his own version of Brandon’s legendary prowess.
There is so much going on in this complex and very challenging story, and it’s such a disappointment that Fassbender was one of several notable actors overlooked in this year’s Academy Awards – another was Ryan Gosling for his outstanding performance in Drive. Fassbender’s Brandon is an excruciating study in self-abuse of the most intimate kind, and it is heartbreaking to watch him avoid any possibility of redemption or meaningful connection with others, let alone his equally problematic sibling. Shot in the pitiless, frigid light of New York’s winter, Shame builds on the extraordinary offering of Hunger, and has me looking forward to the next collaboration of McQueen and Fassbender – Twelve Years a Slave – a period film that sees a 19th-century New Yorker kidnapped and sold into slavery in the Deep South.
*****
TIM MILFULL
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