Not as bad as advertised but also not very good

Rating: 5/10 (11 August 2015)

Based on the phenomenally popular best-seller by E. L. James, "Fifty Shades of Grey" tells the story of a shy and sexually repressed - so sexually repressed she's still a virgin - English Lit. major (Dakota Fanning) who falls under the spell of a handsome yet extremely eccentric 27-year-old billionaire and corporate mogul named Christian Grey (a charisma-challenged Jamie Dornan) who just so happens to be heavily into S&M. As Grey slowly introduces her to the world of sexual pain and domination, Anastasia becomes more and more intrigued by what the attractive young man has to offer. But how long can this go on before her natural instincts for self-respect and independence begin to assert themselves and drive the couple apart?
But don't harbor the illusion that their relationship is just about sex; there are trips in private helicopters, as well as iron-clad, no-disclosure contracts to be signed and prescribed diets to be followed. In short, this is a 24/7 master/servant relationship entered into by two willing partners. In fact, the movie underscores the irony that such dominant/submissive relationships are actually built upon the paradox of freely giving up one's freedom in an effort to be more free. The film also explores how being a part of a mysterious and often misunderstood sexual subgroup requires one to present one face to the outside world and an entirely different one behind closed doors - and the often debilitating effect that such a dual existence can have on a person's emotional and psychological well-being.
Though the critics pretty thoroughly savaged the movie upon its release in early 2015, there are a few things I actually found myself admiring about "Fifty Shades of Grey." First, it scrupulously avoids many of the tired clichés and tropes normally associated with romantic movies. Second, it isn't afraid to present characters - Christian, in particular - who are often hard to like and identify with, and the movie appears to be content with that fact. Even beyond his fetishism and affinity for kink, Christian comes across as downright weird at times, and the movie doesn't try to soften or "redeem" him over the course of the story. The authors make it quite clear that Christian is, at some deep psychological level, a pretty messed up person and that many of his proclivities are the result of the abuse he suffered at the hands of an older woman. I'm not sure this is necessarily fair to the people who comprise this particular sexual subgroup, but, at least as portrayed in the movie, it doesn't come across as all that erotic or appealing an avenue of sexual expression, especially when carried over into the non-sexual realm of their lives as well. In fact, Christian's obsessive need to control Ana becomes positively off-putting at times.
Now onto the movie's defects. One of the weaknesses inherent in adapting a piece of erotica like "Fifty Shades of Grey" to the screen is that the simulated sex scenes tend to become more clinical than erotic when visualized on film. Far from tantalizing or arousing us, the sex scenes take on the quality of mere curiosities, with the audience placed in the role of dispassionate observer rather than engaged voyeur. Moreover, to call the movie's pacing glacial would be doing it an injustice. So concerned are writer Kelly Marcel and director Sam Taylor-Johnson with not generating any real excitement or passion that they go overboard in the opposite direction, leaving us checking our watches (or cell phones) instead of becoming fully engaged in what is taking place on screen.
So, in the final analysis, is "Fifty Shades of Grey" an endorsement of the S&M lifestyle, or is it more in the nature of a cautionary tale? For the most part, I think it is the latter (I can't speak for the novel, never having read it). After all, as previously stated, Grey is portrayed as pretty much psychologically damaged, and Ana ultimately rejects the arrangement that threatens to turn her into little more that a slave, even if a voluntary one. The feminist ending also seems to hint at the notion that this is probably not the healthiest relationship for the young woman in the long run. The final shot certainly implies that Ana has opted to sever ties with the man who intrigued her initially. I guess we'll just have to wait for the seemingly inevitable sequel to find out for sure.