The film starts off in a New York subway when Brandon Sullivan (Michael Fassbender) notices a woman on the train giving him flirty looks. A dramatic score builds up as she gets off the train at its next stop. We see a wedding ring on her finger but that does next stop him from chasing after her. He frantically looks all around the stop but she is nowhere in sight. In his mind, she was the one that “got away”.

At a glance Brandon seems to have everything going for him. He is a charming, handsome, and successful man. What you do not see the strong addiction he has to sex. He does not believe in marriage because he is incapable of emotionally connecting to people. The longest relationship he has ever had is four months and it was probably his longest by a landslide.

On any given night he brings a lady home from a bar, hires a prostitute or settles for internet pornography. He often watches pornography on his computer without pleasuring himself. It has gotten so bad that his work computer stopped working because of the amount of pornography and subsequently computer viruses that were on it.

He comes home one night to find music blaring in his apartment. Thinking he has walked in on some kind of criminal he quickly heads to the closest to get a bat. Then he bursts open the bathroom door only to find it is his sister, Sissy Sullivan (Carey Mulligan).

It would be just like Sissy to show up uninvited as that is the whimsical nature of her personality. She is a beautiful traveling singer but she is also not without her flaws. The first indication that she is suicidal is when she and Brandon are at the subway and she half-jokingly acts if she is going to step down to the tracks. Perhaps it was more of a reaction than a joke? The second time is at a dinner table someone spots marks on her arms that she shrugs off by saying she was bored as a child.

Sissy just wants to stay in contact with her brother. She knows if she stops attempting to do so with him that she would never hear from him again. But he does not see it like that. Brandon looks at her as weight on his shoulders and a responsibility. She stands in his way of living the life he wishes to pursue.

Hinted along the way is the fact that their upbringing was rough but it was never explained. It is not a bad thing that it was never explained as films often give out unnecessary details. Instead you will be thinking to yourself just what it is that their parents did to these kids growing up.

Michael Fassbender was simply stunning in his bravest and greatest performance to date. I agree with the many out there that say he was snubbed from an Oscar nomination but it is not much of a mystery. More than likely it had less to do with his performance in the film as it did with the rating of the film.

It is hard to believe that this marks only the second film that which Steve McQueen has directed. Shame was executed so well you think he would have been doing this his whole life. I have foolishly not seen his first film, Hunger, but after watching this one I will be sure to add it to my list.

The cinematography was very well done. In particular the scene where he is jogging down several blocks in downtown New York City. Shots of the city skyline are frequent throughout the film and a character in the film even says at one point, “Wow. I forget how beautiful this city is.” The colors in Shame are dark which works perfectly for its subject matter.

Ultimately, Shame is about the failure to connect emotionally with people. It is a passionate, perverse, and powerful film. But I suspect Steve McQueen knew this already. In the last scene of Shame the words powerful, thoughtful, and relevant appear clearly visible in the background. I do not think that was an accident.

Available Excusively on Blu-ray Combo Pack April 17th, 2012

It is a coming-of-age story about a young girl named Jenny (Carey Mulligan) whose father is very determined that she goes to Oxford. Right from the very beginning she meets an older man named David (Peter Sarsgaard) who is witty, suave and wealthy. Naturally her father is a bit skeptical of this name but like her, he is caught off guard of his charm.

They go on a few date with some of his friends and seemed to hit things off quickly as they share similar tastes in music and art. David is almost too good to be true, you just cannot help but assume that there must be a catch. He was a bit vague with his answer when Jenny asked what he did for a living, certainly not going into any details about it. Then one evening he shows up and is sharing drinks with her parents trying to persuade them to let he take her to Oxford for the weekend. David tells them he is an alumni from there, only he told her he never went to college.

After the successfully convincing Jenny’s parents to allow her to go to Oxford, it is brought to David’s attention that Jenny is a virgin and intends to be so until she turns seventeen. David seems content with that. The next morning David and his friend/business partner are go into a house for business reasons. Jenny wants to join but is promptly denied thus further making what he does more suspicious.

Eventually David asks Jenny to marry him. She does not respond right away and has to think about it. She brings this up to her parents, asking them their thoughts on getting married instead of going to Oxford, presuming her father would say absolutely not. Instead, he is perfectly fine with it due to his fondness of David.

It is Jenny’s current school teacher who tells her that getting married would ruin her life and that not going to college would be tragedy. Advising her without a degree you will not be able to get a job. Jenny’s argument is that the education is hard and boring and once you get a job it will be hard and boring. She goes on to say that if she gets married she will live a wonderfully fun life by going to nice restaurants and listening to good music with the man of her dreams. A decision must be made.

First hour of An Education goes by so fast and it really does a good job of developing characters, something that I very much appreciate. Both Carey Mulligan and Peter Sarsgaard put on a showcase of great acting. If Carey Mulligan continues with performances as she did with this one, she will be a future star for sure. As the film progressed you slowly find out more and more about David and some of the mysteries that surround him. I felt that some of the initial charm of his was slowly fading and but you cannot discredit his good intentions completely.

What it excelled in character development it lacked in plot substance. I felt there could have been more done with it. The climax was faint and unsubstantial. An Education was not completely forgettable and I would recommend it as a watch once indie film.