CAN YOU LOVE OTHERS, IF YOU DON'T LOVE YOURSELF?
LOGLINE:
When his estranged sister visits unexpectedly, a sex addict’s rising tide of emotions threaten to overwhelm him. Triggered, his compulsive behavior escalates, becoming more and more self-destructive resulting in dire repercussions to his career, a budding relationship with a coworker, and his own health and safety. His sister’s suicide attempt serves as a sobering wakeup call. Will he confront his addiction and compulsive behavior or allow himself, his life and that of his sister to fall apart completely?
COMMENT SUMMARY:
Shame is a powerful, challenging script ripe with gravitas and human emotion. It is well-written, well-paced and expertly crafted. The story is engrossing and generates a gravity that pulls you in and a strong narrative current that pulls you along to its conclusion. The distance traveled between the beginning and end of the story is short, but the change in elevation is dramatic and engaging. Brandon’s character walks an unseen tightrope, before careening over the edge. The audience follows him, watching fascinatedly as the tragedy of a human car wreck unfolds before our eyes. STRONG RECOMMEND.
SYNOPSIS:
BRANDON SULLIVAN – early 30’s, attractive, athletic – lies awake, staring at the ceiling of his Manhattan apartment anticipating the sound of his neighbor’s morning alarm clock. He is a creature of habit. This is how his day and every day begins. He’s off to the shower.
Brandon takes the subway to work. On the platform, he keenly anticipates the arrival of the train, aware of the rush of displaced air in advance of the subway. On the train, he takes inventory of his fellow passengers – noting especially, PRETTY SUBWAY GIRL.
In flashback, Brandon checks his messages while trudging down the hallway to the bathroom. The woman’s recorded voice asks him to pick up. He does not, choosing instead to ignore the message and shower. He is unconcerned.
On the train, Brandon is captivated by Pretty Subway Girl. From across the car, he admires her collarbone, hair, nails. He’s entranced by her, excited. When their eyes meet, she looks away – hinting interest.
Brandon sits in a meeting. His boss, DAVID FISHER – early/late 40’s, tech startup/finance type – rants, in typically incoherent, start-uppy style inspirational diatribe railing against cynicism. Brandon is distracted, paying more attention to his coworker MARIANNE – mid/late 20’s, attractive, composed, professional – than his boss.
Across the hall, an IT technician takes Brandon’s hard drive from his office.
Later that evening - Brandon answers a knock at his apartment door. Answering it, we meet ALEXA – attractive, escort/prostitute. After a perfunctory but pleasant business transaction they retreat to his bedroom and have sex.
The next morning, Brandon is back to his routine. Raising the blinds, pads off to the bathroom He does not notice Alexa’s earring left behind on the floor. Brandon checks his messages. He has another message from yesterday’s female caller. She implores him to pick up the phone. There is a stronger sense of urgency this time - pleading, hanging on the line, becoming angry, hanging up. As before, it all goes ignored. Brandon is already in the shower, completely unconcerned he masturbates.
The next morning, Brandon finds himself sitting once more opposite Pretty Subway Girl on the train. They flirt with one another. She postures to allow Brandon a better look at her. It’s a game – and they are both playing now. As the train approaches the station, Pretty Subway Girl stands and prepares to exit, inadvertently giving Brandon a good look at her wedding ring. Undeterred, they both cue up in front of the door. Brandon presses against her from behind – breath on her neck. This is a charged moment passing mutually between two strangers.
When the doors open, everyone exits into a crowded station. Brando tries to stay close to Pretty Subway Girl, but they are separated to Brandon’s disappointment.
Brandon arrives at work, to find his hard drive has been exchanged for a temporary replacement by IT – presumably to scan it for viruses. Perturbed by this, Brandon retreats to the men’s room where he masturbates.
Brandon approaches his boss, David in his office inquiring about his hard drive. David explains a virus was found on it and it is being cleaned by IT.
Home at his apartment, Brandon orders Chinese food and watches porn. He ignores a phone call, letting the answering machine pick up. It’s the same woman’s voice as before – this time claiming to have cancer and only a week to live. Brandon can appreciate her sarcasm. He gets the joke, but still ignores the message.
At the office the next day, Brandon is transfixed once more by his co-worker Marianne. He fantasizes about her, lost in a moment in his head.
Brandon nails the big meeting with a work client. The entire office goes out for drinks to celebrate. At the bar, Brandon’s boss David hits on ELIZABETH - 20’s, girls night out reveler.
David’s pickup goes awry when he cannot remember the color of Elizabeth’s eyes.
Brandon enters to save David from embarrassing himself and inadvertently makes an impression on the woman David is pursuing by being able to do what David could not – remember unprompted that her eyes were actually brown and not blue.
David leads Elizabeth to the dance floor. The two dance awkwardly. She is not into him, but he’s trying and she’s letting it happen. Brandon and Elizabeth make knowing eye contact across the room. One of Elizabeth’s friends asks Brandon to dance, but he politely declines.
At the end of the night, Brandon is helping David find a cab. David is pickled and alone. He’s struck out with Elizabeth – but not for lack of trying. Brandon pours David into a cab and sends him home. The evening is over. Brandon walks down the street, making his way home. A car pulls to the curb and rolls down the window. It’s Elizabeth form the club! She asks if Brandon needs a ride – this invitation he accepts. Elizabeth and Brandon have passionate, anonymous sex underneath a freeway overpass.
Returning home, Brandon hears noise coming from his apartment. Is someone in his apartment? He lets himself in quietly hoping to sneak up on the intruder. He finds the record player playing. And hears the water running in the bathroom.
Armed with a baseball bat, Brandon bursts into the bathroom confronting the intruder. Instead he scares the hell out of his younger sister SISSY SULLIVAN who was in his shower. She stands naked in front of him as though it’s not a big deal. A little awkward. They fall into an easy pattern of big brother, little sister razzing. I called you so many times she says. Sissy was the voice on the message machine. It was his sister, not a sexual conquest! Sissy needs a place to crash. Skeptical, Brandon reluctantly allows her to stay.
At night, Brandon watches porn alone in his bedroom habit. He can’t help overhearing a conversation between Sissy and her latest boyfriend where she apologizes profusely, desperate to save a relationship that sounds like it is already in dire straits. Sissy cries and blubbers, devastated. Brandon is disgusted.
The next morning, Sissy confronts Brandon with Alexa’s (the prostitute’s) earring. Brandon ignores the issue, choosing instead to establish rules for Sissy’s time staying with him. He likes things a certain way and he needs her to respect that and adhere to his rules. Just Sissy’s presence there upsets Brandon. It is an uneasy peace between them.
Sissy invites Brandon to her show singing at a bar somewhere downtown that night. Brandon reluctantly accepts, having to will himself to make the effort to show support for his little sister’s endeavors and new start in the city. This conversation has made Brandon late for work.
Sissy accompanies Brandon on his morning commute. On the subway platform, Sissy stands a little too close to the tracks for Brandon’s liking – he pulls her back to a safer distance.
Brandon arrives late to work where once again he is captivated by his attractive coworker Marianne. David inquires about his success with the ladies the night before. Brandon lies about sleeping with Elizabeth, saying instead he was home by himself. David, hoping to perhaps redeem himself in Brandon’s eyes, invites him out for another night out of carousing. Brandon declines, saying he has to meet Sissy at her gig and be supportive. David invites himself along to accompany Brandon.
At a posh, swanky Manhattan bar downtown, David (unsuccessful once more) hits on the hostess who sees through his finance-bro condescension.
Sissy takes the small stage, stealing the room’s attention with an emotional, slow, sad rendition of “NY, NY”. During her performance there’s a shared air of sadness between Sissy and Brandon. Each gets misty and sheds a tear. There is the sense of a painful shared history and emotional depth. Meanwhile, David is thoroughly taken with Sissy.
After the show, Brandon introduces David to his sister. They instantly take a shine to one another – making Brandon the third wheel. The evening unfolds with David and Sissy getting to know one another. Conversation reveals Sissy “lives all over the place…in LA now”. She admits she does not drive, using the bus as transportation back home. Talking, flirting - Sissy rolls up her sleeve inadvertently revealing extensive scarring on her forearm and wrist. Asked about it, she hints at a troubled childhood saying: “I was bored.”
David and Sissy have hit it off. They’re going to get it on tonight. All three of them – Sissy, David and Brandon share an uncomfortable cab ride back to Brandon’s house. On the way Brandon is subjected to a sloppy, drunken make out session between his boss and sister. He is not enthused with this situation. This is not good.
When the cab arrives at Brandon’s apartment, he takes a moment to compose himself in the lobby first before going upstairs. Upstairs, in his apartment his sister and boss have commandeered his bedroom to have sex. Brandon hears them having very physical, dirty sex and immediately becomes incensed. He begins breathing heavy, obviously stressed, freaking out, spiraling out of control. In an attempt to calm his emotions, Brandon goes for a run in the middle of the night. He cranks some classical piano and runs into the night.
When he returns to his apartment, Brandon finds David is gone and Sissy is cleaning herself up in the bathroom. Brandon changes the sheets on his bed – the bed where his boss just banged his sister – and retires to bed.
Explaining it’s too cold to sleep by herself in the living room. Sissy comes into the bedroom and tries to snuggle with Brandon. It’s a tense, awkward, inappropriate moment between siblings. Brandon snaps. Enraged he tells Sissy to get the fuck out of his bedroom.
The next day at the office, Brandon finds his computer has been returned by IT. A coworker tells him David is looking for him. Brandon goes to David’s office. He finds David in the middle of a Skype call with his young son. Brandon waits, listening to their conversation. This is the guy who banged his sister last night! Despite his womanizing, it turns out David is a family man with a wife and son at home. David has two sides: slutty and wholesome and appears to be taking advantage of the “best of both worlds”
In the office kitchen, Brandon and Marianne flirt over coffee. They make eye contact. She seems interested.
Later at night on the street, Brandon pauses smoking a cigarette outside a hotel. Above him in the arcade of hotel windows he watches a couple having sex. Brandon is entranced by the woman pressed up against the glass.
Later, Brandon meets Marianne at a restaurant. He is late. It took him some time to deliberate over whether he was going to show up or not. During dinner, Brandon notices the indentation on Marianne’s ring finger – turns out she’s freshly divorced. Brandon comments that he doesn’t think marriage is realistic, admitting his longest relationship ever was only four months long. Asked about his childhood, Brandon vaguely and reluctantly mentions he’s originally from Ireland, but moved to the US when he was young.
After a successful dinner, Marianne and Brandon have warmed to one another. Their date continues walking down the street. Brandon opens up to Marianne and shares with the story of the scar on his head. He is letting her into his secret world, they are getting close.
In an out of character move, Brandon parts with Marianne at her subway stop, ending the night without a goodnight kiss despite each being eagerly interested in one. There is the hint of a budding emotional synergy between the two characters and Brandon’s desire not to trample what could be a budding romance with raw physicality.
Brandon returns to his apartment. Sissy is out, but has left the record player on in her absence. Sissy is annoying and not very thoughtful. When Sissy does return to Brandon’s apartment, she walks in on Brandon masturbating in the bathroom. Brandon is ashamed. Brother and sister play fight awkwardly once more – wrestling on the couch with Brandon naked. There is a strange and palpable tension between the two. Their physical moment escalates, suddenly making Brandon irate. He shakes Sissy violently by the shoulders, calling her names. Brandon storms angrily from the room and retreats to the bathroom where he is overwhelmed by shame and cries uncontrollably.
While Brandon breaks down in the bathroom, Sissy accidentally stumbles on the porn on Brandon’s laptop. Brandon storms back into the room, takes his computer and goes to his room.
In a frenzy of shame, Brandon makes a clean sweep of his apartment. He gathers all his porn and throws it away. In a final gesture of commitment to this new impulse, Brandon throws his computer away too.
The next day at the office, Brandon approaches Marianne and makes a move on her – giving her the kiss he perhaps should have the night before. Their chemistry is undeniable. Together they leave the office during the day to have sex. It’s impulsive and fun. At the hotel, Brandon rips some lines of cocaine off the back of the toilet and lusts hungrily after Marianne. She is tender and intimate with him –This emotional attachment is different for Brandon. Terrified he recoils, unable to perform. Awkward!
Marianne attempt tender understanding, but Brandon is simply shut down. Marianne chooses to leave and Brandon lets her go.
Stunned and shocked, Brandon goes off the deep end. His behavior spins out of control. Brandon has sex with the woman from the hotel window. The sex is raw and physical – no emotional connection. This is Brandon acting out.
Brandon returns to his apartment. He confronts Sissy about sleeping with David. Brandon suggests Sissy messes up his carefully curated life by playing the victim and allowing herself to be a mess. He doesn’t like her tendency to rely on others. Sissy accuses Brandon of having issues of his own – loneliness, isolation. Brandon’s response is that at least he has an apartment. Brandon storms off.
Later in the evening, on the subway ride home a now-beaten up, cut-up Brandon reflects on the night’s events.
In flashback - Brandon drinks to get drunk by himself at a bar. He hits on CARLY, a girl with a boyfriend. He says crude, enticing things to her. Thought she’s clearly shocked by the things coming out of Brandon’s mouth, she is also somehow into it. Their explicit exchange is interrupted by Carly’s boyfriend with whom Brandon intentionally picks a fight. The boyfriend who follows him outside, jumps him and kicks his ass. Brandon seems to almost enjoy the beating, wanting more. This is how he got the cut on his face.
Brandon wanders the Manhattan bar district alone. He looks a beaten mess and is far too drunk to be allowed into any establishment. He is rejected by a bar bouncer – momentarily Brandon contemplates getting himself into another fight - but thinks better of it. Dejected he moves along.
Across the street he sees a man smoking a cigarette. The man has been watching Brandon trying to get into the club. The man finishes his cigarette and goes inside the bar across the street. Brandon follows him. Crossing the street he narrowly misses being hit by a car. Brandon does not care anymore.
Inside, the bar turns out to be a gay bar. Brandon follows the smoking man through winding corridors where homosexual men engage in sex. It’s a pick up bar and people fuck in the back. The man pulls Brandon into a cubicle, kissing him roughly. Brandon pushes his head down urging he give him oral sex. Brandon gives into the act, fucking this stranger’s face and orgasming. Brandon is hitting rock bottom.
Later, walking home beaten up, Brandon checks his phone messages. There are several from Sissy imploring him for help which he ignores.
Now later in the evening, Brandon has a threesome with two women. We hear Sissy’s last message plays over the scene of the three of them having torrid, carnal sex. The sex does not comfort Brandon. He feels worse instead of better. His behavior is compulsive, self-loathing, and self-destructive – and yet, he cannot stop.
Back to the subway ride home - Brandon’s train car breaks down in the tunnel. His car is evacuated. On the way out, he sees emergency tape suggesting someone may have jumped in front of the train and is seriously injured, if not dead. Immediately Brandon thinks of Sissy. Suddenly, Brandon is instinctually concerned with her well-being. He tries to call her phone, but only succeeds in getting her machine. Brandon hangs up without leaving a message and breaks into a sprint – in a hurry to get home to check on Sissy’s well-being.
When Brandon arrives at his home, Brandon finds Sissy has attempted suicide by slitting her wrists and lies dying on the bathroom floor. Brandon cradles her in his arms, squeezes the wounds on her wrists to stem the blood loss and attempts to dial 911.
Now at a hospital - a few hours later, Sissy is stable and Brandon holds a vigil at her bedside. Sissy opens her eyes long enough to call Brandon a “shithead” - good sign, perhaps between brother and sister in this – the latest of apparently many – fucked up situations.
Brandon walks along the Hudson River. He breaks down completely. His façade of control has completely crumbled. He is destroyed by recent events - his own behavior and Sissy’s mental health.
Brandon is on the subway. Through the throng of commuters Brandon notices the girl from his previous encounter – Pretty Subway Girl. Their eyes meet. She seems interested in picking up where they left off previously – the promise of an exciting encounter. Does Brandon choose to exit the subway car and follow Subway Girl or does he choose not to succumb to baser instincts and ignore the opportunity Subway Girl represents?
The film ends right as the train pulls into the next station.
STRENGTHS OF MATERIAL:
Sex addiction is a subject not often seen broached in cinema. As such, this script is uniquely compelling based on premise alone. Add deeply flawed, nuanced characters. It presents a fascinating and foreign portrait of the after-work downtown Manhattan crowd, their vices, the things we hide beneath the surface of our skin.
Shame is a strong, accurate portrait of modern misery and human distances. The disconnected characters create and curate emotional chasms between each other – walling off entire parts of themselves until they can no longer be successfully contained, inevitably spilling over into the light of day and with disastrous consequences. Will Brandon be able to integrate his most ugly parts of himself and his past? It is one of life’s great questions – if we cannot love ourselves, can we love others? What could end as a trite morality parable instead resolves as an interactive experiment urging the audience to explore their own answers to this distinctly human question.
As a whole, Shame is a deeply human love story of sorts whose tension is expertly crafted from start to finish. It does not satisfy with a concrete ending, choosing instead to be left ambiguous and open to interpretation. This is the strongest and most compelling feature of the script to me. In less skilled hands it could ring as a copout, but McQueen and Morgan earn the right to their ending page after page.
WEAKNESSES OF MATERIAL:
My only significant criticism of the script is that the subject matter (sex addiction) is challenging and polarizing. This is not a broad release, Sunday matinee, mainstream popcorn film. Shame is a dark and emotionally engaging film about a controversial subject. It is the unflinching realism that makes this script gripping – but it could potentially be a turn off for broader audiences for that same reason - too dark, too graphic, too raw, too real. There is no tied-up-in-a-bow happy ending to Brandon’s story. That lack of a satisfying resolution is what makes it engaging, but could potentially not land with American audiences limiting its commercial viability and relegating the film to an art piece rather than a commercial blockbuster.
GENERAL COMMENTS:
Shame is a strong, well-written script that satisfies in many ways. It is a low concept – character driven drama based on a unique premise about a challenging subject. The audience is drawn into a visceral hidden world. The story consistently builds tension and captivates with tightly drawn characters and dialogue. It’s good on paper, it could be great on film.
POTENTIAL FOR DEVELOPMENT/IMPROVEMENT:
Shame could benefit significantly from strong celebrity attachment. Brandon’s character is an incredible opportunity for a strong, male lead who knows himself and is capable of portraying a breadth and depth of emotion. The actor must possess the ability to explore inner darkness and self-loathing. This is not an easy role – but could be rewarding come awards season.
In some ways, this script reminded me strongly of Aronofsky’s “Requiem for a Dream” where deeply flawed, real, human characters steadily descend into an all-consuming inner darkness, going from bad to worse, victims of their own compulsive, self-destruction. The difference between these two films is Shame’s ability to hint at the possibility of salvation for its main character. It is that faint hint of hope that makes this script incredible, memorable and a STRONG RECOMMEND.
