To have the front to call yourself Steve McQueen and get away with it takes some grit, plus  you would have to be totally different to the late legendary film star that we all knew and loved.   Well this McQueen  is a British director of harrowing films; ‘Hunger’ and now ‘Shame’.

Before I give you my view of this work, I’ll give you a script run down.   Brandon (Michael Fassbender) is a Manhattan  rich, overlooking the Hudson river apartment dwelling, success. 

He’s got it all: money, good job plus an addiction, namely sex.   He’ll go for it with anyone he can.  Also he’s obsessed with porn sites - a fact that his boss points out; albeit, he thinks that somebody has tampered with his screen.  Brandon has a problem. 

Suddenly, his sister (Carey Mulligan) turns up wanting to crash at his place.   She is clearly in awe of her brother but not without her own problems, self-harming being one of them.   She stays, and Brandon is “biz as usual”.  He makes an attempt at a decent relationship with an office girl but things don’t work out.  So it’s back to sex on the rocks?!  Meanwhile, he kicks out his sister, which has disastrous results and private hell breaks out.

Verdict: I’ve heard that many critics are claiming this a masterpiece.   Why ,comes to mind?  The brother and sister are a mess, with no indication as to why.  It wallows in its awfulness, and grubby backdrop. 

Its main scenario – Sex – is so sadly exploited that it makes a mockery of the act.   The whole thing has an inert ugliness, and left me with a ‘no hope  for anyone’ feeling.   Sorry, but that’s my view – someone else may say “no, no, it’s genius” …  not for me!