“Fifty Shades of Grey” needs little introduction. It’s a story, which, humorously, started out as fan fiction for the “Twilight” series, about a kinky billionaire who lusts after and aggressively pursues a final-year college student. The movie in and of itself, is not terribly interesting, nor, in fact, is it absolutely terrible.
The leads, Dakota Johnson and Jamie Dornan, deliver above-passable performances with a chemistry that sells the confused nature of both the story and the storytelling, at times to the film’s benefit and at others, to it’s cost. I highly doubt that either Johnson or Dornan will receive Oscar nods next year; however, their body language and facial expressions used to convey inner-monologue were present, if less-than-subtle. Granted, I was watching for exactly those things. (More on this later)
The plot structure is unconventional in places; which may work better in a literary format but it does potentially leave film audiences with little to grasp. The ending, in particular, is one of two things: it is either a very poor ending or not an ending at all. From what I gather about the source material, the movie ends in roughly the same place, but it left me feeling more than a little tired at the prospect of having to sit through at least another half a movie to finish what should be one story.
The most interesting thing for me was not the film itself, not even the comparatively tame sex scenes, but rather the invisible and ever-shifting line between unconventional methods of sexual activity and abuse. Media outlets nationwide and, no doubt, the social media feeds of nearly everyone reading this, have been strongly bisected in this regard. From my perspective, the truth, as per usual, is a shade of grey. Consenting adults mixing pain and pleasure is not a surefire sign of abuse. My questions start to arise when it gets difficult to determine where one party’s free will starts and other’s ends. The relationship between “Fifty Shades of Grey’s” main characters is complicated. There’s consent, very explicit consent, but there is also persuasion and manipulation. The point I would like to make is this: the abuse in “Fifty Shades of Grey,” and I do believe it is there, is not a result of the couple’s sexual practices. If filmgoers who boycott this film would apply a consistent level of tolerance for abusive relationships, their options at the movie theatre would be more limited than it would initially seem. For example, both Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet and “Twilight’s” Edward and Bella are surface-level examples of abusive relationships.
Disregarding my investigation of the relationship dynamics, this film is a fair leap ahead of where I expected it to be, but it still lands far from the target. It’s not great and it’s not terrible, but rest assured, “Fifty Shades of Grey” won’t hurt anyone.
3 of 6 stars