Fifty Shades

I saw this movie twice this past weekend, once with my girls and another time on a date.  I was able to get all of the shock out of the way during the first showing and was able to actually critique the film during the second one.  This post isn’t necessarily a film review, but my opinion on it all.

There’s been so much hype around this film since it was announced that it was being made.  There are people who are uber excited to see this movie and there are those who plan on boycotting the film, upset that a movie based on a book about abuse has swept the nation.  I’ve heard both sides of the argument and wanted to throw my two cents in to the pot.

I don’t think that the ‘Fifty Shades’ series is a piece of great literature, I sure hope that no one thinks so.  If I was going to boycott this book it wouldn’t be because of the BDSM nature of it but because of the juvenile writing technique.  The constant use of “inner goddess” and phrasing got on my nerves more than some of the points that people were making about abuse.  Now don’t get me wrong, there’s definitely some abuse going on in Christian and Ana’s relationship.   I’ve read numerous articles saying that Christian’s singular taste in the whips/chains/etc are what’s abusive about the relationship, but I don’t think that’s the case.  They developed a co-dependency that’s rubbed me the wrong way.  I’m not fully submerged into the BDSM lifestyle, but I don’t mind a pair of handcuffs or two in the bedroom and a bit of spanking.  When there’s trust between partners those can be pleasurable things.  But back to the topic at hand.

*Spoiler alert* Christian was sexually abused by a family friend when he was younger, he was a victim of statutory rape and his abuser was into BDSM.  As a result that’s the only way he thinks he knows how to love is with BDSM.  The act itself isn’t abusive if both parties are legally able to and do consent.  I don’t think he’s abusing Ana during their acts in the red room of pain, but I do think that his stalking and their co-dependency are a bit much.  This was apparent throughout the movie too, there were scenes when her roommate would question Christian’s antics and lavish gifts so soon in the courtship.  

There were actually a few things I found more disturbing than the whips, chains, ties and handcuffs. I was more put off by the fact that Dakota Johnson’s nipples were out for at least 30 minutes in the movie.  I know that there was a lot of sex in it, and there was far more in the book, but I didn’t need to see her nipples that often.  I also didn’t like Rita Ora’s hair hat (read: wig) in the movie.  Rita Ora is a beautiful woman and they made her look so dowdy.  I’m hoping they change the look a bit during the second and third movie when she goes through that whole kidnapping debacle.  Oh yeah they’re going to have to make the other books into movies, this one ended just as abruptly as the book did.  Overall I gave it a solid ‘B’.  It was a mediocre book and it was a mediocre movie.

What about y’all?  Did you go see the movie, and if so what were your thoughts?