Fifty Shades of Grey-2015
Director-Sam Taylor-Johnson
Starring-Jamie Dornan, Dakota Johnson
Scott’s Review #262
Reviewed August 5, 2015
Grade: B-
To quote a humorous phrase I once coined years ago, when I decided to give in and see Fifty Shades of Grey, despite negative reviews, “I was not expecting Citizen Kane” fit perfectly with this film as I pondered my review of it after the conclusion.
Based on the titillating book series by author E.L. James, the film is sudsy, steamy, and pretty poorly acted. However, something is charming and sexy about the badness of it. To be fair, it is not a terrible film, but the negatives outweigh the positives.
Dakota Johnson, daughter of Melanie Griffith and Don Johnson, and granddaughter of Hollywood royalty Tippi Hedren play a shy literature student named Anastasia Steele, pretty and grounded, who meets and becomes enamored with a twenty-seven-year-old billionaire named Christian Grey after driving to Seattle to substitute interview him for a sick friend.
Throughout the interview the chemistry between the two is palpable and an instant romance ensues.
Christian courts Anastasia mercilessly, becoming somewhat controlling, and she is willing to be his “victim” as she adores his attention.
As the two get to know each other better, it is revealed that Christian is a “dominant” and desires Anastasia to sign a contract, becoming his “submissive” and “belonging” to him. Anastasia is conflicted by this notion.
She loves Christian, but wants a traditional romance with flowers and chocolates, something Christian has admitted he does not do.
I confess to having gotten caught up in the kinky romanticism of it.
The film has a smoldering, dreamlike style to it. The scenes in the “playroom” are hot and the film does its best to make the entire production erotic, but not going so far as to make it pure smut- boy meets girl, girl falls head over heels, boy conquers girl.
The film makes sure to portray Anastasia and Grey as complete opposites- he wealthy and sophisticated, calm, cool, and collected- she a struggling, naive girl ripe for the picking.
Perhaps this was part of her appeal to Grey.
Certainly, the acting is not great especially on the part of Johnson.
I did not find Jamie Dornan (Grey) to be so bad, however, and he seemed likable enough to me. For the most part, the character of Anastasia irritates, and I find her quite unlikeable. Here is how it seems- Anastasia becomes enamored with Christian, allows herself to be pursued, showered with gifts, considers, then more or less accepts his offer to be his “submissive”, then gets furious and dumps him.
Huh?
Fifty Shades of Grey is told from a female point of view as evidenced by the marketing and the strategic opening on Valentine’s day weekend.
I sense that the character of Anastasia is made to be the sympathetic one while Grey is drawn to be the cad and the bad character.
A brief backstory is mentioned as to what turned him into a dominant male who likes to have females submit to his desires coupled with his lack of desire for any affection, but this was not too deeply explored.
The film does not want the audience to really “get him” or delve too deep into the psychological reasons, instead of going for the kinkiness and the female side of the story.
A poorly structured film that made a ton of money and will undoubtedly spawn at least another sequel, the film is a guilty pleasure and one I shamefully confess to having somewhat enjoyed.
Oscar Nominations: Best Original Song-“Earned It”
