Hilariously rated ‘R’ by the sages at the MPAA for, among other
things, “unusual behavior.” As
lightweight, female-oriented erotica, Fifty
Shades of Grey certainly had much more significance as a novel than as a
film. I haven’t read it, but it was a
fascinating phenomenon to have a book that was universally panned as dreadfully
written become such an international best-seller. Some saw it as evidence that popular tastes
have deteriorated to an embarrassing degree.
Others (me included) saw it as evidence that feminism and political
correctness have failed across the board to excise the darker and kinkier
elements of the sexual imagination from either women or men, (which was their
expressed goals, by the way). The
success of the book, if nothing else, shows that – when free of the moralistic
and judgmental public spotlight, human beings insist that their private desires
and interests are valid and don’t need to be stamped out in order for society
to survive. Well, enough about that;
this is a film blog after all. Though
not much better reviewed than the novel, I didn’t find the film all that awful
at all. I have to wonder if a lot of the
high-minded dismissals of the film have a lot more to do with the personal
discomfort of critics than with its actual quality. Still, trying to describe the premise of the
film is cringe-inducing, (for its abundance of clichés, not its sex parts). A regular girl with the preposterous
romance-novel name of Anastasia Steele interviews reclusive billionaire businessman
Christian Grey, has a major crush on him, and gradually gets sucked into his
secret world of bondage-and-domination games, which he has in place to shield
him from messy emotional baggage in his dealings with women. Christian is a cypher and remains one
throughout the film, and his flat portrayal by Jamie Dornan is appropriate though
not very compelling. Everything depends
on the performance of Dakota Johnson as Anna, since the entire story is told
from her point of view and she is rarely off-screen. I think she was perfect, convincingly plain
when she’s supposed to be, convincingly sexy when she’s supposed to be, and
adept at communicating shyness in scenes where in reality she could not have
been too shy at all. I wouldn’t call the
film shameless necessarily, (because its handful of sex scenes are pretty
discreetly handled), but it is sort of refreshing in an amusing way to have a
film that is so entirely focused on the romantic negotiations between one
couple. In most movies, that’s the stuff
that is gotten through as quickly as possible to make way for comical sub-plots
involving the various friends and relatives of the main characters. I’m not saying it’s terribly noteworthy by
any means, but it’s just odd to see in a mainstream American movie. I had to admit being impressed that the plot
didn’t deteriorate into a stalking situation, which I had assumed was pretty
much guaranteed. Ironically, in almost
any other context, the required, socially-responsible finale in which moral
order is restored would seem like a tacked-on cop-out to me, but for some
reason, in this case, it struck me as strangely well-earned and
satisfying. Along those lines, I can’t
say that I’m intrigued at all to learn that there is already a sequel in the
works, because this film’s ending is only agreeable if it is indeed the end.
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