Shame is a 2011 British drama film co-written and directed by Steve McQueen, starring Michael Fassbender and Carey Mulligan. Shame was co-produced by Film4 and See-Saw Films. Shame''s explicit sexual scenes resulted in this film being rated NC-17 in the United States.
Fox Searchlight Pictures paid around $400,000 to acquire the United States distribution rights of Shame.The film opened in limited release in the United States on 2 December 2011.
Brandon (Michael Fassbender) is a successful, handsome thirty-something living and working in New York. Unknown to those who know him, he''s struggling with a sexual addiction. On a subway train he flirts with a woman and she flirts back with him. She has a wedding ring on, and when they exit the train, she disappears into the crowd. Brandon and his boss David (James Badge Dale) go out and meet women at a club. Later Brandon has sex with the woman David was trying to pursue. When Brandon arrives home, he assumes a burglar is in his house but finds a naked woman taking a shower: it is in fact his sister Sissy (Carey Mulligan), a troubled young woman who has been left as damaged as Brandon by their childhood, which is never completely revealed. Brandon and David watch Sissy singing a very sad jazz version of New York, New York at a club, then Sissy sits with Brandon and David on the table, and afterwards Sissy has sex with David in Brandon''s bed. Brandon leaves his apartment and runs on the streets while listening to Bach''s piano music on his earphones. Brandon comes back home; he is annoyed by Sissy''s presence. Brandon then tries to pursue his co-worker Marianne (Nicole Beharie), by taking her to dinner. They part ways at the end of the night, and go home alone. Sissy arrives at Brandon''s apartment and accidentally walks in on him masturbating in the bathroom. She then finds his laptop open full of pornography. Brandon violently accuses her of spying on him and she storms out. Brandon then takes all of his pornography in his apartment, including his laptop, and throws it out. The next day at work he approaches Marianne and takes her to a lavish hotel room. They attempt to have sex but Brandon cannot maintain an erection. Marianne leaves, and some time later, Brandon is seen having sex with another woman in the same hotel room. When Brandon gets home, he watches cartoons, and Sissy arrives and talks to him. She says that they are family and are supposed to help each other, but Brandon wants nothing to do with her because he says all she does is drag him down. Brandon then heads out and tries to pick up a woman at a bar, but ends up beaten up by her boyfriend after he insults him by telling him how he would pleasure her. Beaten, he tries to enter a nightclub, but is denied entrance. He sees a gay bar across the street and enters it. As he walks through it, a man approaches and kisses him, then performs fellatio on him. Next Brandon is shown entering a cheap hotel occupied by two women. He ends up having sex with both of them at the same time. When he leaves, he sees that Sissy left a voicemail. He gets off the train he is on due to its being delayed by an implied suicide further up the tracks. He frantically calls Sissy but she doesn''t answer, so he rushes home. When he gets there, Sissy is lying on the bathroom floor after having cut her wrists. She survives and he visits her in the hospital. When he leaves he collapses and cries in the rain. Some time later Brandon is seen sitting on the train, and the same woman from the beginning sits across from him, still wearing her wedding ring. He tries to look away but she keeps staring at him and smiling. She stands up to leave the train, expecting him to follow her like the last time. Brandon keeps looking at her, and before viewers can know if he is going to follow her, the screen cuts to black.
