Finally got around to watching "Shame" and I thought it was rather over-rated. I realize there's a tendency in these types of films to not spell everything out and for the most part I'm fine with that but there really was nothing which provided any groundwork for what Fassbender's character was going through. He was rich, good-looking, women pretty much threw themselves at him and yet we're supposed to think he's a wreck because he doesn't speak to his sister and he watches a lot of porn. There was no attempt at all to convey anything meaningful about why he was supposed to be a wreck. Just pointing out he isn't keen on relationships tells us nothing. Hinting but not confirming a possible incestuous relationship with his sister tells us nothing. I wanted to like this film because I like Fassbender and Carey Mulligan but when it was over I felt like it was a film that was trying to make a statement about something but had not real insight into what that statement should be or why I should even care.
I think it's safe to say that the statement the film was trying to make had nothing to do with how one ends up becoming a sex addict, so not having a direct cause for why he's an addict was probably beneficial to the film imo; the film's statement dealt with the other aspects of sex addiction; such as how severe the addiction takes hold of a person even if everything about the person looks fine to the outside world, by showing that even though he can get hot chicks, he's willing to go wayyyyy lower on the food chain to quickly satisfy his obsessive desires. But still, considering how messed up his sister in the film is too, I think there were some pretty heavy hints suggesting some family related stuff happened in their pasts; though maybe not between the two of them.