Monday, June 15, 2015

Fifty Shades of Grey

Caution: This Might Contain Spoilers!
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This film is based off the novel, with the same title, written by E. L. James (which is loosely based off Twilight). Anastasia Steele is a literature student whose life changes after she interviews the famous billionaire Christian Grey. Grey pursues Steele for his unusual romantic enjoyment.

This film was directed by Sam Taylor-Johnson. Let me start by saying that I did not watch the unrated version. Okay, at this point of the game there is no question about this film's content. It's all about sex, sex, bondage, stalking, and more sex! Fortunately, that's all it needed to ride out the success of the novels. It is comical that a porn company wanted to make an even more heated version of this film, and that the studio's claimed that it would poison the public's perception of the film. That aside, this film's story does remain true to its novel counterpart. Now, in general romance stories are hard to film. They're even harder to make great. In the novels some of the best parts were just witnessing the corruption of an innocent virgin; which this film cannot really show. Through that corruption and curiosity came most of the stories sensuality. This film could on represent the heated romance and bondage aspect of the story. Now, the script writing is as bad as the novel but that is because most of the story happens in the head and not through verbal speaking. The plot remains highly predictable with predictable characters in this type of genre. The only thing that makes this stand out from the familiarity is the bondage. The over obsessed stalking can be easily seen in other films (just to a smaller degree). 

Of course, with this films and novels high popularity, there has been a lot of controversy-even though this is not the first film to feature soft core porn. I did find it surprising that it landed an R rating for the united states. I think that just means that something expected to produce money can  supersede any downfall the ratings system holds against films. Obviously religious groups have an outstanding hatred for it. The other issue is the manner in which the relationship is depicted; controlling and abusive. It also makes the true act of bondage look more evil than it actually is. Sure it is, but it is also supposed to be a fantasy. Like all other romance films this is not reality, and we ought to stop treating it as such. Of course, with all this popularity and controversy the sequels will also be brought to the big screen. 

The acting in this film fell flat until it came to the sex scenes. Sadly, there are really only two characters in this film. The secondary characters were so seldom used that they didn't really exist. Dakota Johnson played the role of Anastasia Steele. Her portrayal of the character was true to the novels; however there was no real emotional pull. Jaime Dornan played the role of Christian Grey. He was the handsome actor the female audience demanded. He was decent at creating the characters masochist side, and his over the top obsession, but did never playfully intimidating. I imagine a lot of audiences held some disappoint in that we don't see a full monty.

I give this film 3 out of 5 stars! This film serves it purpose in entertaining its female audiences. Apart from that, it falls short.

This film can be found on DVD.

Answer to last blog: Director Karel Reisz directed the 1974 film The Gambler.

Que: What television show did actor Jaime Dornan star in?

Hannibal
Ben and Kate
Once Upon A Time
The River

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