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FIFTY SHADES OF GREY Send This Review to a Friend
The titillation factor in “Fifty Shades of Grey,” based on the E. L. James best seller, is very minor, barely rising to soft core porn. Those fascinated by sadism and masochism will have to be satisfied with a bit of butt whipping, a dash of suspension and slight bondage. And it takes a long time even to get there.
We see a lot of the bare body of Dakota Johnson, performing appealingly as Anastasia Steele, the timid but curious nice-girl virgin tantalized and seduced by the ultra rich domineering, lascivious playboy Christian Grey, played by attractive, muscular Jamie Dornan. Much is made of her becoming susceptible to his demands for her to partake of his sexual tastes and his consensual but forceful deflowering her as a preliminary for more that awaits her in his private play room of domination paraphernalia.
But the entrance to this world is crowded out by much ado concerning Anastasia’s emotional demands that in exchange she wants a romantic commitment, which Christian candidly says he never can give. Six lashes on her backside, with her having to count aloud as they are applied, prove too much for her if she can’t also find love to go with a sore posterior.
The attention with which Christian showers her is seductive in itself, as she experiences the life of riches she can have in contrast to her university studies and job in a hardware store. One of the more sensual scenes is the foreplay of discussing a sex contract that Christian wants Anastasia to sign. In a business-like meeting they go over his assorted demands for the submissive acts to be inflicted on her. She accepts some and crosses out others. She also is taken into his locked chamber to ogle the sexual toys, only a few of which we get to see used on her before her rebellion.
The film, written by Kelly Marcel, slickly directed by Sam Taylor-Johnson and handsomely photographed by Seamus McGarvey, is likely to find its audience among all the women who bought the book, with plenty of tittering at a mainstream film’s effort to display kinky sex within the framework of an R rating. But frankly, I found more eroticism some seasons back in “Secretary,” which starred Maggie Gyllenhaal turning submissive under the strokes of her boss, played by James Spader. But I guess “Fifty Shades of Grey” will have to do for now, just in time to whip up sentiment on Valentine’s Day. A Universal Pictures release. Reviewed February 13, 2015.
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