by Joseph Rossi
Just in time for Valentines Day…a film about bondage.
Every generation has their movie about “sexual awakening”. The 70’s has Last Tango in Paris, the 80’s had Body Heat and 9 1/2 Weeks, the 90’s, we got Basic Instinct. Now we get 50 Shades of Grey, based on the novel by of the same name.
Having never read the novel, I walked in fresh. The novel, being a international best seller, had been the talk among my wife’s friends for a while. For what I heard, it was a glossier version of the cheap erotica that plague airport and bus station newsstands. A book about a woman’s sexual awaking and man’s emotional development.
Anastasia Steele (Dakota Johnson) interviews the rich, mysterious and handsome entrepreneur Christian Grey (Jamie Dornan) for her university paper. There is an attraction between them. After a series of meetings Ana learns that Christian is only interested in a relationship on his own terms. They embark on an intense and passionate affair that brings forward Grey’s particular taste in bedroom activities.
The first thing I did when I came home after seeing 50 Shades of Grey was get my wife’s copy and thumb through to read all the sex scenes. As I figured, if they filmed those scenes as they were written, the film would’ve been an NC-17 instead of the R rating it is. The movie is dark, funny, fluff. The audience at this Thursday night screening were mainly couples in which there were more laughs then I anticipated. I am not sure if that was the intention of filmmaker Sam Taylor-Johnson but with the screenwriter keeping true to author E.L. James prose, from what I read of it, you’ll find it hard not to laugh.
The film does have some good aspects to it. I find Dakota Johnson quiet effective. She brings shyness and innocence to her character that, if played by a more established star, would have been lost. The look of them film, lensed by Seamus McGarvey, is the true star. The whole thing look great, Grey’s world is seductively photographed.
The main issue I have is that this is a very “thin” film. The story is extremely simple no matter how dark it gets. I guess the sequels (which there will be) will flesh out the story and characters more. Do I recommend this for a night out? Not really. This film is like a candy bar. Glossy wrapper, delicious but in the end, empty calories.
