Dark stares, black leather whips and grey ties: Welcome to the world of Fifty Shades of Grey, the erotic romantic drama that’s been the hottest topic since it premiered on Valentine’s Day. Eager fans have impatiently been waiting to see how British author E. L. James’s infamous novel has been adapted into a hot and heavy R-rated movie directed by Sam Taylor-Johnson.
For those of you who have been living under a rock for the past four years, or are simply not interested in erotic literature, “Fifty Shades” is about a young and innocent college student Anastasia Steele, played by Dakota Johnson, who falls into an sadomasochistic (or “S&M”) relationship with the young and mysterious businessman Christian Grey, played by Jamie Dornan.
While most audience members (primarily young girls in their early 20s) were expecting a sex-filled thrill-ride with Christian Grey purring dirty things at them through the darkened theatre speakers, the movie offered less actual sex and more “contemplating whether to have sex or not to have sex”.
Whether you like to hear it or not, the plot line is weak. There is no actual arc in the storyline. The story solely revolves around Anastasia deciding whether or not to become Christian’s submissive in bed (not that that’s the only place they do it). While watching “Fifty Shades”, we need to keep in mind that it was based off Twilight fan fiction, which explains the lack of concept (my apologies to any major Twilight fanatics).
That said; we were expecting Christian and Anastasia to chillingly plant the most absurd and deliciously shocking sexual fantasies in our brains. We wanted to see and experience seduction that even the dirtiest minds could never have envisioned. But although the sex in “Fifty Shades” is sensual candy to our eyes (and occasionally ridiculously satiric) and we do get chills watching a hunky shirtless Mr. Grey run an ice cube down a tied-up Anastasia’s aroused body with his panting mouth, it is nothing we wouldn’t get to see in a PG-13 Wolf of Wall Street or a steamy sex scene in a classic romance film. Where did the mind-blowing creativity go?
The sex, which is what the whole story is based on, includes long leather whips and tickling feathers that are suggestively traced along Anastasia’s body, grey silky ties and ropes that are used to blindfold her and tie her to velvet beds. The repeated spanking is half comically cliché and half hauntingly seductive. All the while Queen B’s sultry voice melts with the couple’s heavy breathing into a steamy “You’re touch got me looking so crazy right now.”
While the character depth is apparent in Ms. Steele, we seem to miss it in Mr. Grey. Johnson marvelously portrays the frantic emotions a young, shy and inexperienced girl would have if she were to fall in awe with a dangerous sexual being such as Christian Grey. We see her make a fool of herself while drunk-dialing Christian or crying over her boyfriend’s abnormal desires. While Dornan is beautiful to look at and definitely breaks hearts in his boxers or in his clean-cut suit, he remains the same stubborn, strange and slightly creepy geek throughout the whole movie. Whether Dornan himself or his adaptation of Christian Grey isn’t a good fit, the hint of awkwardness Dornan displays is is very unsettling.
Lust, desire, fear, love, pain and infatuation are all tangled together in this exhilarating piece of art. I myself don’t quite know what its purpose is, but it got me to feel many things at once, even if these things were more complex than just plain positive or negative. I think that is a good thing. Movies don’t always go for the black and white “good or bad”; sometimes they go for the grey. Or even multiple shades of grey. Maybe even fifty.
Although the ratings are at a solid 4.2 of 10 on “Rotten Tomatoes”, Fifty Shades of Grey still dominates the box offices a week after is release. It is worth the watch to develop a personal opinion on this unusual movie. Either you’ll love it, hate it, or just don’t know.