I went to see Fifty Shades of Grey and I am Fifty Shades of Mad. The truly torturous thing about this film is sitting through it. At face value, it’s a bad movie, with a bad story, bad characters, and bad dialogue. It’s not interesting, it has nothing significant to say, and it’s not even entertaining. If you think a film like this would at least provide truly erotic and daring sex scenes that will interest those viewers who showed up precisely to see those moments, you’d be wrong.
This movie is a classic, by-the-book description of a codependent relationship with an abusive partner. Except it’s portrayed as a titillating romance story, with the man portrayed as a brooding damaged abuser whose heart is warming and he just needs another chance and for a girl to try harder to understand him.
My personal hope is that a lot of fans watch this movie and come away with a new perspective on how terribly wrong the themes and attitudes about women really are.
Please know that none of my remarks are a judgment about BDSM itself, or of those who in real life participate consensually in such things. This is about the film, the portrayal of women and men, and the use of domination and control to manipulate and abuse — none of which I am claiming is necessarily inherent in S&M culture outside of this movie and its characters.
If you want to see bad acting, and a bad script just watch porn – at least everyone gets a happy ending
