50 Shades of Grey

Starring: Dakota Johnson, Jamie Dornan
Directed By: Sam Taylor-Johnson
Reviewed by Brendan Dousi

[Rating: 2/5]

It’s become a kind of cultural phenomenon, hasn’t it? Erotica. Not just your average Erotica, but Erotica that was originally an online fan fiction based off of the Twilight novels. That’s right, folks, an internet erotic fan-fiction has become a best-selling novel and has now been made into a film. No matter your views on the story itself, that’s pretty damn impressive. 50 Shades of Grey, I have no choice but to applaud you. Now, all that’s left to see is if Director Sam Taylor-Johnson actually pulled this off.

Anastasia Steele (Dakota Johnson) is just your average, plainly beautiful University Literature student who is doing her friend a favour. When her college roommate is too ill, it’s up to Ana to step up and go in to interview the mysterious and enigmatic handsome billionaire Christian Grey (Jamie Dornan). Despite Ana’s awkward stumbling, sparks fly immediately and Grey is magnetically drawn into the clumsy innocence that is Anastasia Steele. So enamoured with her that he proceeds to romantically stalk her for the remainder of the film, a situation she doesn’t seem to have much issue with. Because, you know, he’s hot and rich. Yeah, that’s actually about it.

50 Shades of Grey is a deceptive film. Sam Taylor-Johnson has crafted a beautiful, slick looking film with sharp images and expert composition. Each frame looks beautiful, a testament to her career as a Photographer for sure, and each scene is directed with a clear sense of artistic sensibility. Sporting a catchy and appropriate soundtrack of guttural, sensual pop-tunes the technical aspects of the film are quite above-par. All of this technical competence is there to distract you and deceive you into thinking that the content of this film is anything short of ‘fucked up’.

The story content of this film, what there is of it at least, is very troubling. It romanticizes and glorifies what, in the light of day, is basically a psychopathic stalker story. Ana is so enamoured with Christian Grey that she seems to look past the fact that he’s devoid of anything resembling a personality beyond, ‘clearly a sociopath’. The man sees people as tools (which is revealed in their interview) and has no sense of personal boundaries when it comes to the women he’s pursuing. Their first encounter beyond the Interview? He uses his vast cellular network to track her down at a bar because he, in his masculine wisdom, thinks she shouldn’t be drinking so much. He proceeds to take her back to his place and change her clothes while she’s unconscious. That’s just the tip of the iceberg, though, with the rest of the film showing this character exerting both physical and psychological control over this woman. One worrying scene in particular is when she comes home from work and he is waiting in the corner of her room in the shadows and proceeds to have sex with her without any vocal consent. Freaking creepy.

There are hints in here that the film wanted to be much more than a faithful retelling of the books. Certain moments stick out as more nuanced and there’s a surprising element of comedy that comes from the interactions between Ana and Christian. Interactions that under other direction could have been played straight, but with Sam Taylor-Johnson the inherent humour was found. It’s very telling that there are now many reports that Ms. Johnson fought constantly with the author of the book, E.L. James, over the direction of the film. The initial bidding war over the rights to 50 Shades saw that James retain final creative control over the film adaptation. It’s a shame, really, when considering the kind of film Sam Taylor-Johnson could have made without the author’s meddling. I’d much rather see a version of 50 Shades of Grey that plays out as an Erotic Thriller rather than a muted and troubling romance with minimal plot.

I have no doubt that 50 Shades of Grey will please the fans. Sure, there probably isn’t as much use of clamps and butt-plugs as they might have wished, but for better or worse the spirit of the novel is very much intact. I would recommend this film to anyone else overcome by sick curiosity, because it’s actually a very watchable film. It just so happens to be a very troubling film as well.

P.S. This film claims to show elements of BDSM when really everything depicted is just a form of mild foreplay.