21 Jan 2012, Posted by admin in Aba,Thoughts, No Comments. Tagged Aba, film

Shame

Words by Aba.

The latest box office offering from director Steve McQueen tackles the contraversial topic of sex addiction. Michael Fassbender plays a New York City dwelling, handsome thirtysomething with a compulsive dependence on sex (or its subsititute, as the opening shower scene of self-gratification shows). He’s a slacker at work but his boss loves him so it doesn’t matter. But when his porn-riddled computer is confiscated by the office IT department while he’s having a … ahem… in the men’s toilet; and his loose cannon younger sister arrives unannounced to crash on his sofa, his sordid solo world is sent into tailspin.

It’s obvious the intention is to offer an objective view of the protaganist; there are suggestions that family history have induced his behaviour and evidence that most women are up for it and just waiting for the right guy (like Fassbender) to make the advance. But McQueen approaches his life with an aloofness that makes for a few too many moments of awkward dialogue. The sllloooooowwweerrr – than – slow pacing didn’t help matters much either but the crescendo of the film’s conclusion does not disappoint. With the press debate raging on as to whether sex addiction is a real thing or a pervert’s excuse to abandon self-control, this film might lead you to your own conclusions. I was merely hoping for a Fassbender full frontal, and was quite disappointed

Shame is showing now at selected cinemas.